Spyware Pegasus found at Downing Street 10
The infamous Israeli Pegasus spyware is suspected to have infected official UK networks including the prime minister´s office on Downing Street 10 and the foreign and commonwealth office, Toronto University’s The Citizen Lab has announced. The Lab says it has notified the UK government.
The Lab says suspected infections were associated with Pegasus operators linked to the United Arab Emirates, India, Cyprus, and Jordan.
As foreign office has personnel in many countries, the suspected infections could have happened abroad with foreign SIM cards, similar to how US state department employees´ devices were hacked in Uganda 2021, the LAB´s statement, signed by Professor Ron Deibert shows.
The spyware is developed by Israeli company NSO Group and can secretly be installed on mobile phones and other devices running on most versions of iPhone´s iOS and Google´s Android.
Criticized the NSO has said Pegasus is only meant to be used against criminals and terrorists. However, investigative journalism Pegasus Project has shown how the spyware has been used to spy on politicians, human rights activists, journalists and others.
The Trojan horse computer virus was discovered in 2016 after a failed attempt to install it on the iPhone used by a human rights activist.
In July 2021, the Pegasus Project and Amnesty International reported that Pegasus was still being widely used against high-profile targets.
After a later news story published by the New York Times, FBI confirmed that it had bought access to the spyware to “stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft” and that its evaluation of the tool partly related to security concerns if the spyware fell into the “wrong hands”.
FBI said it had never used Pegasus in support of any FBI investigation but the fact that the FBI confirmed having access to it caused global publicity.
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