Pegasus Spy Claims Probed As Macron Switches Phone

Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jul, 2021 ) :Hungary, Israel and Algeria on Thursday probed allegations that Israeli-made spyware was used on journalists, rights activists and 14 heads of state, as French leader Emmanuel Macron ordered tighter security and changed his phone over espionage concerns.

President Macron -- whose name was on a list of alleged targets -- ordered "a strengthening of all security protocols" following a specially convened meeting of the nation's Defence Council, his office said.

Macron "has himself changed his phone and number for certain exchanges", it said.

The NSO Group's Pegasus software -- able to switch on a phone's camera or microphone and harvest its data -- is at the centre of a growing storm after a list of about 50,000 potential surveillance targets was leaked to rights groups.

Amnesty International and French media nonprofit Forbidden Stories collaborated with a clutch of media companies, including the Washington Post, the Guardian and Le Monde, to analyse and publish the list.

Hungary was the only EU country listed as a potential user of the spyware, with hundreds of targets including journalists, lawyers and other public figures.

Hungarian prosecutors said on Thursday they had opened a probe "to establish the facts and to determine whether and, if so, what crime has taken place", the Budapest Regional Investigation Prosecutor's Office said.