On Wednesday, the public prosecutor’s office ordered an
investigation into what it called false allegations that Moroccan security
services used NSO malware to spy on activists, journalists and politicians in
multiple countries.
France’s prime minister said Wednesday that multiple
investigations were under way into any wrongdoing.
Morocco’s government had lashed out in a statement late
Tuesday at a global media consortium investigating the suspected widespread use
of NSO’s Pegasus spyware to target journalists, human rights activists and
politicians in multiple countries. The government threatened unspecified legal
action.
French newspaper Le Monde, a member of the consortium,
reported that the cellphones of President Emmanuel Macron and 15 then-members
of the French government may have been among potential targets in 2019 of
surveillance by Pegasus spyware on behalf of a Moroccan security agency.
French public broadcaster Radio France reported that the
phones of Moroccan King Mohammed VI and members of his entourage were also
among potential targets.
“The Kingdom of Morocco strongly condemns the persistent
false, massive and malicious media campaign,” the statement said. The
government said it “rejects these false and unfounded allegations, and
challenges their peddlers ... to provide any tangible and material evidence in
support of their surreal stories.”
The consortium identified the possible targets from a leaked
list of more than 50,000 cellphone numbers obtained by the Paris-based journalism
nonprofit Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International.
Consortium members said they were able to link more than
1,000 numbers on the list with individuals. Most were in Mexico and the Middle
East.
While a phone number’s presence in the data does not mean an
attempt was made to hack a device, the consortium said it believed the data
indicated potential targets of NSO’s government clients.
Also on the list were phone numbers in Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Morocco and Rwanda, as well as ones for several Arab
royal family members, heads of state and prime ministers, the consortium
reported.
The Paris prosecutor’s office is investigating alleged use
of the spyware, and French experts have called for greater security for cell
phones of prominent officials.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex said Wednesday that the
president “ordered a series of investigations,” but said it was too early to
comment or announce any new security measures or other action without knowing
“exactly what happened.”
NSO Group denied that it ever maintained “a list of
potential, past or existing targets.” It called the Forbidden Stories report
“full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories.”
The source of the leak — and how it was authenticated -- was
not disclosed.
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