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The maker of the notorious Pegasus spyware has said that government and military officials are “legitimate intelligence targets” in a recent court filing, citing Republican Mitch McConnell as an example.
An Israeli cyber intelligence firm known for its “zero-click” spyware has said that it considers officials in all military and government officials legitimate surveillance targets for its software.
The NSO Group made the claim in a court filing regarding an ongoing case between the messaging service WhatsApp and the group regarding 2019 allegations of infecting 1,400 WhatsApp users with the company’s Pegasus spyware.
The NSO Group is demanding full access to a list of “VIPs” and “civil society leaders” compiled by the Citizen Lab during investigations into the use of Pegasus spyware on non-criminal or terrorist targets. Only a limited list has been shared with the NSO Group, which contends that it needs access to the entire list to better make its case.
The Citizen Lab lists include current members of government (VIPs) and members of opposition parties (civil society leaders).
The NSO Group did note that it had been able to discover some details of the lists and said that a “quarter of the ‘VIPs’ are affiliated with criminals and terrorists based on readily available public sources alone”. But even if they’re not somehow connected to illegal activities, the NSO Group contends that such people are nonetheless legitimate targets.
“Moreover, the VIP list is almost entirely comprised of persons who, by virtue of their positions in government or military organisations, are the subject of legitimate intelligence investigations,” the NSO Group said.
Talking about the civil society list, NSO Group added that it believes such distinctions are “unjustified”.
“For purposes of determining whether an individual was legitimately surveilled (e.g., as part of an intelligence operation) using Pegasus, defendants submit that this distinction is unjustified and all senior political operatives should be classified as VIPs,” it said.
By way of an example, the NSO Group asked, “Would anyone argue that Mitch McConnell is a member of ‘civil society’ because his party is in the minority in the Senate?”
Mitch McConnell is currently the Republican Senate Minority Leader.
The NSO Group said in the filing that at least two of the people on the civil society list are Indian journalists accused of spying and sedition by the Chinese and Indian governments, and therefore, their involvement in “criminal activity” justifies the use of Pegasus spyware against them.
Citizen Lab’s most recent report into the use of the NSO Group’s “mercenary spyware” revealed seven Belarussian and Russian-speaking “independent journalists” and activists were targets of Pegasus between August 2020 and January 2023.
“The latest investigation identifies seven additional Russian and Belarusian-speaking members of civil society and journalists living outside of Belarus and Russia who were targeted and/or infected with Pegasus spyware,” Citizen Lab said in a post on its website.
“Many of the targets publicly criticised the Russian government, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These individuals, most of whom are currently living in exile, have faced intense threats from Russian and/or Belarusian state security services.”
The NSO Group refers to itself as a developer of “best-in-class technology to help government agencies detect and prevent terrorism and crime” on its website and claims that “NSO products are used exclusively by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight crime and terror”.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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