 We’re shocked – shocked! – to find that spying is going on in Morocco. That country’s intelligence service is using what may be the world’s most powerful spyware to target “journalists, human rights defenders, French politicians and Spanish cabinet ministers and police officers,” according to reporting led by Sam Jones for The Guardian. The new evidence comes from a whistleblower who previously worked for Morocco’s internal security services and was uncovered in a collaborative journalistic investigation that includes Amnesty International’s Security Lab. The spyware Morocco is believed to have used includes the infamous Pegasus, which allows its operator to access everything on a target’s mobile phone, including emails, text messages, and photographs. This software does not require the victim to fall for a phishing scam, but can simply install itself remotely. Pegasus can also activate the phone’s recorder and camera, turning it into a 24/7 listening and video-recording device. In July, Security Lab published a technical analysis of Pegasus, labeling it “the world’s most notorious spyware system.” Pegasus manufacturer NSO Group says it sells its software to governments that need help tracking criminals and terrorists. For its part, Morocco denies having any relationship with NSO. The investigation’s leader Forbidden Stories and its partners found evidence to the contrary. For entities with an interest in such technology, Pegasus is particularly appealing because, again, it can infect phones remotely – physical access no longer required. This spyware also has the added advantage of erasing any evidence of its existence. What used to be exceedingly difficult – traditional field intelligence – has suddenly become easy. Perhaps too easy. As described in the accompanying documentary, “Pegasus Project: Inside the Moroccan Spying Machine,” after Morocco’s intelligence service realized what it possessed in Pegasus, its agents quickly added the cell numbers of Moroccan journalists and human rights defenders. Not exactly “criminals and terrorists.” And before long, The Guardian reports, “the targeting had begun to extend beyond Morocco’s borders,” eventually including 200 Spanish mobile numbers, among them those of the prime minister, the minister of defense, the interior minister, and the minister of agriculture. Spain dropped its initial investigation, only to briefly reopen it after French authorities shared details of their own Pegasus experience. “We spy on everyone,” a former Moroccan intelligence officer said in conversation with the journalists, “just in case.” It’s all just one more chapter in the unfolding real-life thriller that is the NSO/Pegasus drama. Comments are closed.
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