"Spyware Pegasus found on hacked mobile phones of four human rights defenders" 5 April 2022

The controversial commercial spyware program Pegasus has been found on hacked mobile phones belonging to four human rights defenders in Jordan, according to a report released today by...Front Line Defenders (FLD) and...Citizen Lab.

The inclusion of several Jordanian women human rights defenders among the targets “merits special attention” as another example of a “disturbing rise in gender-based digital repression,” according to the report...

The targeted individuals include Ahmed Al-Neimat, an anti-corruption activist with the group Hirak, Malik Abu Orabi, a human rights lawyer and member of The National Forum for the Defense of Liberties, the activist and award-winning journalist Suhair Jaradat, and a second journalist who chose to remain anonymous due to potential risks. Both journalists are women human rights defenders...

A previous FLD report noted that such digital targeting causes women to “live in a perpetual state of fear, become socially isolated and restricted in their social lives, work, and activism.”

FLD and Citizen Lab believe digital forensic evidence offered in the report indicates that two of the NSO clients using Pegasus in these attacks were government agents...

Sales of Pegasus must be approved by the Israeli government. NSO Group has denied misuse of the software by its vetted clients...