AMMAN — Hundreds of Jordanians have been victims
of the Israeli spyware
Pegasus, including members of commission that worked out
a reform blueprint and members of the Islamist opposition, an information
security expert has said.
اضافة اعلان
Hussein Al-Jedi, CEO of
Tadarus, an Amman-based
information security company told reporters at a press conference on Thursday
that former MP, academic, and member of the Royal Committee for the
Modernization of the Political System Dima Tahboub had her mobile phone hacked;
also hacked was the phone of another member of the committee, Dima Alam Farraj,
a social media influencer and media professional.
The spyware also targeted Secretary-General of the
Islamic Action Front (IAF) Murad Al-Adayleh, manager of the party’s election
campaign for the 2020 parliamentary polls Badi Rafaiah, also a unionist, and
journalist Hussam Gharaibeh, the IAF announced.
Tahboub, who was a spokesperson for the Islamist
bloc at the
Lower House, told
Jordan News that the attack dates back to
2019, when she was still a lawmaker. “It is apparent,” she said, “that the
people behind the attack targeted the government”, as she, in her capacity as a
legislator, used to hold frequent meetings with top officials.
Five people whose data was exposed used iOS were
among 200 Jordanian figures using
Apple cellphones who were targeted. They all
received notifications of the breach by Apple, but no such information was
available for Android users.
This means that the number is significantly higher
than that, Jedi said.
According to Statcounter.com,
Android-operated
cellphones have a market share of a little less than 80 percent in Jordan,
while Apple phones dominate around 20 percent and the rest is shared by other
brands using different operating systems.
About a month ago, lawyer and human rights activist
Hala Ahed announced that her phone was hacked via Pegasus; that was confirmed
by Access Now and Front Line Defenders, the international anti-surveillance
groups.
According to Access Now,
Pegasus spyware, developed
by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, “exploits technical vulnerabilities in
a victim’s device to covertly gain access to the device and extract data,
including text messages, emails, media, microphone, camera, passwords, voice
calls on messaging apps, location data, call logs, and contacts.
The spyware
potentially allows an attacker to activate the phone camera and microphone to
spy on an individual’s calls and activities. As such, Pegasus not only enables
the surveillance of the target, but also the target’s communications and
interactions with other people”.
Jedi further warned that the system is characterized
by a “zero-click” feature, which, unlike other types of spyware software, does
not need the victim to activate a link.
Last year, an investigation by the
UK-based daily The
Guardian in collaboration with 16 other media organizations, indicated that
Pegasus was sold to authoritative regimes to spy on dissenters, including
“Human rights activists, journalists and lawyers across the world”.
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