The use of Pegasus spyware to target Catalan independence leaders and Spanish politicians – including the prime minister – has plunged Spain into a “crisis of democracy” and national security that can only be resolved through independent investigation, a leading cybersecurity expert has warned.
Last month, researchers at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto found that at least 65 people linked to the Catalan independence movement were subject to spyware between 2017 and 2020.
Two weeks later, the Spanish government announced that the phones of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles had been hacked with Pegasus in May and June last year.
Although the Spanish government has tried to defuse the dispute by firing the country’s espionage chief, Pas Esteban, earlier this week, the twin scandal has refused to fade.
Ron Dibert, director of the Citizen Lab, said he was shocked to find that Pegasus had been used against political goals and their families, as well as against lawyers and journalists in what was meant to be a “seemingly democratic” society. According to its creators, the Israeli NSO Group, spyware is sold only to governments to help them track down criminals and terrorists.
Deibert told the Guardian that Esteban’s dismissal did not come close to resolving the concerns raised by recent revelations.
“Removing the intelligence chief looks like raising someone like a scapegoat,” he said.
“And it doesn’t answer any of the questions about who bought the spyware, who authorized it, how the excuse was given to prosecute people who are clearly not legitimate targets by any reasonable international standard and involve gross violations of privacy rights. If we intend to make this move and hope that the problem will disappear, I think that is inadequate. “
The head of the Citizen Lab said last month’s report emphasized the urgent need to set up an independent commission with the power to investigate and propose reforms to prevent this from happening again.
“I think this is even more necessary now in light of the dramatic findings that the phones of the prime minister and the defense minister have been hacked with Pegasus,” Deibert said.
“What’s going on? If I were a Spanish citizen, I would insist on such an impartial investigation. But it seems that this may not happen.”
Two weeks ago, Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) joined the three parties on the Spanish right, vetoing a parliamentary inquiry into the Pegasus scandal.
A PSOE spokesman said the congressional committee under discussion was not needed, as an internal investigation by Spain’s national intelligence center was already under way, as was an investigation by the public ombudsman.
Deibert, who was in Spain this week, said he was surprised by the complacency he encountered and disappointed that many people in the country did not seem to have a problem targeting Catalan leaders.
For many in Spain, the regional independence movement – which attempted a unilateral, illegal attempt to secede in October 2017 – remains a direct challenge to the country’s “inseparable unity” enshrined in the constitution.
For Dibert, however, the issue goes beyond national politics.
“I have told people that if they conclude that this is a Catalan problem and maybe they can reject it as such or put it in a small box and put it that way, they are grossly wrong,” he said. .
“For me, this illustrates that you have this extremely powerful surveillance technology – and the market that supplies it, which is almost entirely unregulated – used by governments, as this case shows, that are unaccountable and have major problems with public accountability and oversight. So, this is really a crisis of democracy – I think so – in Spain. “
Deibert also responded to speculation that Citizen Lab’s investigations were biased and compromised by the fact that one of its researchers, Ellie Campo, himself was targeted for using spyware because of his apparent links to the independence movement.
Deibert said Campo was the victim of a “blatantly baseless and truly scandalous slanderous campaign”. He also said he was deeply concerned to discover that Campo’s father, a well-known doctor, had been directed to his hospital’s official telephone number, which would contain sensitive medical information.
Deibert said he rejected any suggestion that the Citizen Lab was politically motivated or in any way dependent on the Catalan independence movement.
“We are not a company, we never do commissioned research, we are impartial and we are a university-based research group managed and controlled by me, the lead researcher who manages every aspect of this project from start to finish,” he said. .
Sign up for the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
While the Spanish government has refused to speculate on who may be responsible for targeting Sanchez and Robles’ phones, citing only “illegal” and “external” attacks, fingers are pointing in the direction of Morocco, which has engaged in tense diplomatic opposition to Spain when the hacks happened.
A leak at the heart of the Pegasus investigation has revealed that more than 200 Spanish mobile numbers have been selected as possible targets for surveillance in 2019 by an NSO Group client believed to be Morocco, but Morocco has denied spying on foreign leaders using Pegasus and said reporters were “unable to prove it [the country had] all kinds of relations ”with NSO.
Deibert said that although there is no information about these attacks, there are two possible scenarios: that it is a foreign government, probably Morocco; or that it was an “unfit internal agency” acting against the state.
“Given what I saw in Spain, this is a very plausible scenario,” he said. “Both cases – both hypotheses – point to the urgent need for an independent, impartial investigation.
Add Comment