JAKARTA - Spyware Pegasus NSO Group, is accused of being behind the murder of journalist from Saudi Arabia, Jamal Khashoggi several years ago. According to digital forensic analysis Pegasus was used covertly to target the smartphones of two women closest to the columnist who is known to be critical of the Saudi government.
The Android phone of Khashoggi's wife, Hanan Elatr, was targeted by Pegasus users six months before his murder. But this digital forensic analysis cannot determine whether the hack was successful or not. While his fiancee's iPhone, Hatice Cengiz, had been penetrated by spyware days after the murder.
Their cell phone numbers appear on a list of more than 50,000 numbers concentrated in countries known to spy on their citizens and are also known clients of NSO, an Israeli company.
Another close associate of Khashoggi was hacked after the journalist's murder. Two other colleagues and two senior Turkish officials involved in the investigation into his murder also appeared on the list.
NSO executives themselves have insisted that the spyware was not used to monitor Khashoggi or his family.
But a Pegasus user sent a text to Elatr, with a link that could embed spyware. The user has also twice disguised himself as his sister. The texts were sent in November 2017 and again in April 2018, six months before the killing of Khashoggi on October 2, 2018. This fact was revealed in a digital forensic examination conducted by Amnesty International's Security Lab.
According to Amnesty researchers, Elatr has no memory of clicking on links created for the iPhone, because he is using an Android phone. However, Amnesty researchers were unable to determine whether the device was breached. Unlike the iPhone, Android does not log the type of information required for Amnesty's detective work.
During the months that the targeting took place, Elatr and Khashoggi spoke and texted several times a week. They also met face to face three times in various locations. Khashoggi taught him to use various applications that could escape the scrutiny of certain parties.
"Jamal warned me beforehand that this might happen," said Elatr, whom Khashoggi married in June 2018 in Alexandria. "It makes me believe that they realized everything that happened to Jamal through me."
Elatr said he kept his phone on the tea table in their living room in Virginia while he talked to colleagues overseas. According to cybersecurity experts, Pegasus can steal cellphone content and turn on the cellphone's microphone without the cellphone owner knowing and can monitor it in real time.
After Khashoggi's murder, someone using Pegasus targeted Cengiz's iPhone. He accompanied her to the gates of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul when she went to pick up documents in October 2018.
According to Amnesty's analysis, Cengiz's cell phone was burglarized just four days after Khashoggi's murder and then five times in the following days. The analysis was unable to determine what was taken from the phone or whether any audio surveillance was performed.
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