Israeli firm\`s spyware used to target journalists_ activists
Rights activists_ journalists and lawyers around the world have been targeted with phone malware sold to authoritarian governments by an Israeli surveillance firm_ media reports say.
They are on a list of up to 50_000 phone numbers of people believed to be of interest to clients of the company_ NSO_ leaked to major news outlets.
It is not clear where the list came from - or whose phones had actually been hacked.
It says the software is intended for use against criminals and terrorists and is made available only to military_ law enforcement and intelligence agencies from countries with good human rights records.
In a statement_ it said the original investigation which led to the reports_ by Paris-based NGO Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International_ was "full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories".
The reports released on Sunday said authoritarian governments abused the Pegasus software_ hacking 37 smartphones_ according to a report by the Washington Post.
The allegations about use of the software_ known as Pegasus_ were carried on Sunday by the Washington Post_ the Guardian_ Le Monde and 14 other media organisations around the world.
Pegasus infects iPhones and Android devices to enable operators to extract messages_ photos and emails_ record calls and secretly activate microphones.
Forensic tests on a few phones with numbers on the list indicated more than half had traces of the spyware.
Some 180 journalists are said to be on the list_ from organisations such as Agence France-Presse_ CNN_ the New York Times_ Al Jazeera and many other news outlets.
They also include two women close to the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and a Mexican journalist named Cecilio Pineda Birto_ who was murdered at a carwash.
The wider list also includes heads of state and government_ members of Arab royal families and business executives.
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