AMMAN — Journalist Suhair Jaradat never suspected
she would be among dozens of Jordanians whose mobile phones were hacked by
Pegasus, the highly controversial spyware designed and sold by Israeli spyware
company NSO Group. Last week,
Jordan News reported that Dublin-based
Frontline Defenders, in collaboration with
University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab,
published a report about a digital forensic investigation which uncovered
Pegasus spyware on the mobile devices of four Jordanian human rights defenders,
including a women’s rights activist, a lawyer, and a journalist.
اضافة اعلان
Jaradat told
Jordan News that when her
WhatsApp application began sending strange messages to her contacts, she became
suspicious and informed the authorities. It was later confirmed by technical
and examination reports that her mobile phone was hacked seven times between
February and December 2021.
While government authorities never contacted
Jaradat, which made her angry, the
Open Source Association, in cooperation with
Frontline Defenders, backed up her mobile data, conducted a forensic
examination, and found technical evidence indicating that the hack was
performed using spyware.
The forensic examination indicated her mobile phone
was hacked seven times: four times by “zero click” attacks, once through her
SMS messaging service, and twice via WhatsApp.
She said the government should work to prevent such
intrusions and follow up on any entity which threatens the security and privacy
of Jordanian citizens.
Executive Director of the Jordanian Open Source
Association Issa Mahasneh told
Jordan News that the technical
examination of the hacked devices is not able to determine the source of the
hack. The association also issued a statement condemning these practices.
Mahasneh expressed hope that government bodies will
pay more attention to this matter, adding that the National Cyber Security
Center’s denial of the Frontline Defenders report was not enough.
The
National Cyber Security Center has denied
allegations that agencies associated with the Jordanian government have
targeted the cell phones of Jordanian citizens using the Pegasus spyware.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the center
stressed that these allegations are baseless and that Jordan has not cooperated
with any agents with the aim of spying on citizens’ phones or calls.
State Minister for Media Affairs and spokesperson of
the government Faisal Al-Shboul told
Jordan News that “we cannot fight
such violations without the cooperation of the people who have been hacked”,
stressing that “we will make the necessary effort through the National Center
for Cyber Security and the
Cybercrime Unit to prevent these practices.”
A previous report prepared by Frontline Defenders
and Citizen Lab last January indicated that several Jordanian public figures
and activists were also hacked through the Pegasus spyware, including MP Mustafa Hamarneh, lawyer Hala Ahed, social
media activist Dima Alam Farraj, and former MP Dima Tahboub.
Nidal Mansour, the Executive Director of the Center
for Defending Freedom of Journalists,
told
Jordan News that “we are not a technical body to determine whether
the breach occurred or not, but we call on the government to investigate
independently and to announce its results with the participation of independent
experts.”
Mansour stressed that the government must prove
whether breaches occurred or not and that the issue is not limited to hacking
the phones of journalists, but also the potential hacking of other Jordanian
citizens. “The government must take measures to protect the rights of
Jordanians, preserve their privacy, and (find out) who is behind these
practices,” he said.
Chairman of the
National Center for Human Rights
Rahil Gharaibeh told
Jordan News that the center has called for
verifying any allegations related to the penetration of communication devices
and urged the implementation of the necessary legal and technical measures to
put an end to it. Gharaibeh said that the center had issued a statement and
submitted a complaint on behalf of persons whose devices had been hacked.
He added that international human rights standards
guarantee the right to private life, which includes the protection of
correspondence and communications conducted through the means of digital and
online communication.
Mohammed Al-Maskati, a digital consultant and
security researcher for Frontline Defenders based in
Bahrain, told
Jordan
News that the organization identified two Pegasus operators in Jordan and
believes they are likely agencies of the Jordanian government.
The joint report by Frontline Defenders and Citizen
Lab identified two hacker groups operating under the nicknames “Mansaf” and
“Black Iris”.
Al-Maskati added that at least two of the four
targets were hacked by Pegasus operators primarily focused on Jordan, based on
SMS messages containing Pegasus links that map to a cluster of domain names
focusing on Jordanian themes.
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