Saudi spied on dissident using Israeli phone hacking tech...
Saudi Arabia Spied on Dissident Using Israeli Phone Hacking Tech - Report
Report reaching out to us on Wednesday
01:31 03.10.2018
By gowidenews.
A report by a Canadian academic lab has found that the Saudi government used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to snoop on the phone of a prominent Saudi dissident living in Canada.
Pegasus is a spyware produced by the Herzliya-based NSO Group, an Israeli intelligence firm. Pegasus turns phones into listening devices and works by infecting "targets using Androids and iPhones by sending them specially crafted exploit links," the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab, which produced the report, explained. "Once a phone is infected, the customer has full access to a victim's personal files, such as chats, emails, and photos. They can even surreptitiously use the phone's microphones and cameras to view and eavesdrop on their targets."
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland speaks after receiving the Foreign Policy's Diplomat of the Year 2018 award on Wednesday, June 13, 2018, in Washington
© AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana
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"We have high confidence that the cellphone of Omar Abdulaziz, a Saudi activist and Canadian permanent resident, was targeted and infected with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware," Citizen Lab wrote in the report, released Monday. "Abdulaziz has been outspoken on an ongoing diplomatic feud over human rights issues between Canada and Saudi Arabia. The targeting occurred while Abdulaziz, who received asylum in Canada, was attending university in Quebec."
A report previously published by the lab on September 18 found that at least 36 governments use NSO Group's products, likely including the Saudi Arabian security services.
By examining Abdulaziz's phone, Citizen Lab found that the infection likely occurred in late June, when he was ordering protein powder online.
Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper reported that when Abdulaziz ordered some of the powder, commonly used by athletes to build muscle, he received a text message directing him to a package-tracking site. However, this link was a fake, Citizen Lab explains, and would have directed him instead to a website used by NSO Group to take over his — and many other — phones.
However, "we are unable to prove he clicked on the link," the Citizen Lab report says, adding that researchers "similarly lack forensic data from his iPhone that would prove an infection."
NSO Group, however, insists that it sells its software to clients on the condition that it only be used to combat crime and terrorism, denying its responsibility or culpability when those governments abuse the technology to violate their citizens' human rights, the Times of Israel reported.
Abdulaziz told the Globe and Mail he has no doubt about being under the Saudi government's watchful eye. He told the publication two of his brothers back in Saudi Arabia had been arrested over the summer, which he sees as an attempt to pressure him to stop criticizing the Saudi government.
Abdulaziz came to Canada in 2009 on a scholarship to study English at Montreal's McGill University. However, as his social media accounts grew an increasingly large following based on his activism and criticism of the Saudi government's repressive tactics and human rights record, his scholarship was revoked in 2013 and he was granted political asylum in Canada the following year, the Canadian Broadcasting Company explained.
Report reaching out to us on Wednesday
01:31 03.10.2018
By gowidenews.
A report by a Canadian academic lab has found that the Saudi government used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to snoop on the phone of a prominent Saudi dissident living in Canada.
Pegasus is a spyware produced by the Herzliya-based NSO Group, an Israeli intelligence firm. Pegasus turns phones into listening devices and works by infecting "targets using Androids and iPhones by sending them specially crafted exploit links," the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab, which produced the report, explained. "Once a phone is infected, the customer has full access to a victim's personal files, such as chats, emails, and photos. They can even surreptitiously use the phone's microphones and cameras to view and eavesdrop on their targets."
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland speaks after receiving the Foreign Policy's Diplomat of the Year 2018 award on Wednesday, June 13, 2018, in Washington
© AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana
Canada Renews Criticism of Saudi Arabia, Condemns Planned Beheading of Female Activist
"We have high confidence that the cellphone of Omar Abdulaziz, a Saudi activist and Canadian permanent resident, was targeted and infected with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware," Citizen Lab wrote in the report, released Monday. "Abdulaziz has been outspoken on an ongoing diplomatic feud over human rights issues between Canada and Saudi Arabia. The targeting occurred while Abdulaziz, who received asylum in Canada, was attending university in Quebec."
A report previously published by the lab on September 18 found that at least 36 governments use NSO Group's products, likely including the Saudi Arabian security services.
By examining Abdulaziz's phone, Citizen Lab found that the infection likely occurred in late June, when he was ordering protein powder online.
Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper reported that when Abdulaziz ordered some of the powder, commonly used by athletes to build muscle, he received a text message directing him to a package-tracking site. However, this link was a fake, Citizen Lab explains, and would have directed him instead to a website used by NSO Group to take over his — and many other — phones.
However, "we are unable to prove he clicked on the link," the Citizen Lab report says, adding that researchers "similarly lack forensic data from his iPhone that would prove an infection."
NSO Group, however, insists that it sells its software to clients on the condition that it only be used to combat crime and terrorism, denying its responsibility or culpability when those governments abuse the technology to violate their citizens' human rights, the Times of Israel reported.
Abdulaziz told the Globe and Mail he has no doubt about being under the Saudi government's watchful eye. He told the publication two of his brothers back in Saudi Arabia had been arrested over the summer, which he sees as an attempt to pressure him to stop criticizing the Saudi government.
Abdulaziz came to Canada in 2009 on a scholarship to study English at Montreal's McGill University. However, as his social media accounts grew an increasingly large following based on his activism and criticism of the Saudi government's repressive tactics and human rights record, his scholarship was revoked in 2013 and he was granted political asylum in Canada the following year, the Canadian Broadcasting Company explained.
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