Category Archives: Amnesty International

Israeli court rejects request to revoke NSO Group’s export license

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An Israeli judge has ruled against revoking the export license of Israeli software surveillance firm NSO Group, despite allegations its software has been used to target human rights activists and political dissidents around the globe. Amnesty International filed the lawsuit in Israel last year alleging one of its employees had been targeted by Pegasus, NSO Group’s signature software. But the judge overseeing the case said that Amnesty had not provided sufficient evidence to show that Pegasus was used against the alleged targets, according to Haaretz, which first reported the decision. Security researchers and human rights groups have claimed that Pegasus has been used to target political dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists, including an Amnesty employee, in several countries. Most notably, Pegasus is alleged to have been used to target associates of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi before he was murdered. Amnesty alleged in June that the technology was also being […]

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Moroccan journalist targeted by NSO Group spyware, Amnesty International says

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Amnesty International said Sunday its security team found evidence of abuse on a Moroccan journalist’s cell phone that can be tied back to spyware developed by NSO Group. The journalist, Omar Radi, was targeted by surveillance software capable of tracking texts, calls, emails, camera, and more — just days after NSO Group, the Israeli surveillance software company, announced it would stop its products from being used to perpetuate human rights abuses, according to Amnesty International. Although the attackers behind the targeting are unconfirmed, Amnesty says evidence indicates the Moroccan government is behind the surveillance. NSO Group has repeatedly said it only sells its technology to governments. The targeting of Radi came at a time when he was being repeatedly harassed by the Moroccan government between January 2019 and January 2020. Radi was targeted by a series of network injection attacks, which allowed attackers to intercept and manipulate targets’ internet traffic, Amnesty International said. […]

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Research shows human rights activists in India were targeted with spyware, including NSO’s Pegasus

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Human rights activists in India were targeted by a coordinated spyware campaign from January to October of 2019, according to research published Monday by Amnesty International and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. Nine activists in total were targeted, eight of which have been calling for the release of 11 people jailed during protests related to the violent uprising in Bhima Koregaon, India in 2018. The targets were sent spearphishing emails with malicious links and files that, if clicked, would infect the victims’ computers with spyware capable of tracking their communications. Three of the activists were targeted by Pegasus, a notorious spyware program developed by Israeli surveillance software firm NSO Group, according to Amnesty and Citizen Lab. Human rights defenders in India have been victimized by spyware in the past. But the research shows that surveillance software has been leveraged multiple times against activists linked to the Bhima Koregaon activists. One […]

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Uzbekistan surveillance campaign leverages new spyware against human rights activists

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Human rights activists and journalists in Uzbekistan, whom researchers have long claimed are victims of intrusive surveillance, are facing an increasingly sophisticated campaign in Uzbekistan, according to new findings from Amnesty International. Last year, a Canadian non-profit, eQualitie, revealed that a group of unidentified attackers has targeted journalists and human rights defenders in Uzbekistan with spearphishing emails since 2016. In June, the attackers escalated their activity, and are now trying to leverage spyware against hundreds of targets, Amnesty said in research published Friday. The advanced espionage efforts highlight how the surveillance threat to vulnerable groups in Uzbekistan is “more sophisticated than previously documented, and able to bypass some security tools [human rights defenders] use to protect themselves[,]” according to the Amnesty International blog detailing the analysis. Human rights activists have been fighting against forced labor and torture in Uzbekistan’s criminal justice system, according to Human Rights Watch. Watchdog groups also have cited unfair criminal trials, and politically-motivated imprisonment in the country. Authorities typically claim they […]

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Amnesty suit asking Israel to revoke NSO Group’s license heads to court

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Amnesty International is urging an Israeli court to restrict the business of NSO Group, a spyware vendor accused of helping repressive governments spy on dissidents and journalists. The U.K.-based human rights group on Tuesday published a statement encouraging Tel Aviv’s District Court to revoke NSO Group’s export license, a move that would effectively prohibit the company from providing foreign clients with its technology. NSO Group sells Pegasus, hacking software which allows clients to monitor targets’ emails, text messages, collect passwords and gather other valuable personal information. Government critics and journalists in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been targeted with Pegasus, Amnesty said. “The best way to stop NSO’s powerful spyware products reaching repressive governments is to revoke the company’s export license, and that is exactly what this legal case seeks to do,” Danna Ingleton, deputy director of Amnesty Tech, said in a statement Tuesday. NSO Group, founded […]

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NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware detected in attacks against Moroccan journalist, activist

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Hackers potentially working on behalf of a foreign government have targeted Moroccan human rights advocates with malicious software built by NSO Group, a controversial spyware vendor, according to Amnesty International. Since 2017, journalist Maati Monib and Abdessadak El Bouchattaoui, an attorney who has protested the Moroccan government’s security forces, repeatedly have received SMS messages containing malicious links that, if clicked, would install the Pegasus malware, Amnesty found. It’s the latest allegation that NSO Group provided Pegasus to a customer that used it for more than combating terrorism and crime. The software allows attackers to take almost total control of an affected phone. Human Rights Watch has documented a list of government efforts to obstruct reform in Morocco, including prison sentences for people who have “harmed” the monarchy there or insulted Islam. El Bouchattaoui, one of the activists whose experience was detailed by Amnesty, was sentenced to two years in prison for […]

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Rights groups probe investments in NSO Group’s private equity firm

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Since a February shakeup of the management structure of Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group, whose software has allegedly been used to target journalists and other civilians, human rights activists have stepped up their scrutiny of the vendor’s new private equity firm. The probing of London-based Novalpina Capital, which now controls the NSO Group board, is an effort to highlight what critics say is a failure by NSO Group and its investors to prevent the abuse of the company’s mobile-phone hacking tools. Now, the inquiry is drawing attention to the unexpected role that pension funds in the U.S. and the UK are playing in the standoff between the Israeli vendor and digital rights groups like Amnesty International and Citizen Lab, a research center at University of Toronto’s Munk School. In a letter last week to Britain’s South Yorkshire Pensions Authority (SYPA), Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert asked the pension fund to take a hard look […]

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Amnesty sues maker of Pegasus, the spyware let in by WhatsApp zero day

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Amnesty International, which was sent the Pegasus spyware via a WhatsApp message, is seeking to stop NSO Group’s “web of surveillance.” Continue reading Amnesty sues maker of Pegasus, the spyware let in by WhatsApp zero day→

Human rights groups to ask Israeli court to revoke NSO Group’s export license

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Human rights advocates, including Amnesty International, plan to file a petition Tuesday in Israeli court to revoke mobile spyware vendor NSO Group’s export license, citing alleged abuses stemming from the vendor’s technology. The legal action is an escalation in the confrontation between civil society groups and NSO Group, and comes after the company’s Pegasus surveillance software was reportedly used to track an Amnesty International researcher. Pegasus is so potent in its ability to compromise a mobile phone that it requires a license from the Israeli defense ministry to export. Where NSO Group’s spyware has been reportedly been misused, “we’re going to keep looking for accountability on a case-by-case basis,” said Amnesty’s Danna Ingleton, who will submit an affidavit as part of the court filing. “In the meantime, there has to be enough evidence to revoke the export license.” The legal motion, to be submitted in the District Court of Tel […]

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