Spain Claims Government Officials Were Targeted by Pegasus Spyware

pcmag.com:

What goes around comes around. Weeks after Citizen Lab reported that Catalan activists were targeted by mobile spyware, most likely by Spanish authorities looking to undermine Catalonia's efforts to secede, the Spanish government has claimed its ministers were also being spied on.

Spain says Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles were both targeted by the Pegasus spyware in 2021, according to The Guardian, which reports that Spain intends to have the illicit surveillance efforts investigated by the country's highest criminal court.

The NSO Group has long claimed that it only sells Pegasus to government organizations for anti-terrorist efforts or criminal investigations. Yet the sophisticated mobile spyware has repeatedly been found on smartphones used by activists, journalists, and government officials.

Which is where Citizen Lab comes in. It said in April that at least 65 people—including "members of the European Parliament, Catalan Presidents, legislators, jurists, and members of civil society organizations" and their family members—with ties to Catalonia were targeted by spyware.

"While we do not currently attribute this operation to specific governmental entities," Citizen Lab said in its report on this so-called CatalanGate, "circumstantial evidence suggests a strong nexus with the government of Spain, including the nature of the victims and targets, the timing, and the fact that Spain is reported to be a government client of NSO Group."

In a statement provided to The Guardian, NSO Group said spying on "politicians, dissidents, activists, and journalists is a severe misuse of any technology and goes against the desired use of such critical tools. [NSO] does not and cannot know who the