[ad_1]
MADRID (AP) – Separatist politicians and activists from Catalonia on Tuesday announced that they have launched a legal attack in half a dozen countries against the Spanish state and the Israeli owners of a controversial spyware allegedly spying on them.
The head of the Catalan and Spanish-speaking northeast region also announced that relations with central authorities in Spain will remain strained until Madrid carries out a full investigation and punishes those responsible for the alleged surveillance.
A spokesperson for the Spanish government said there was no illegal espionage in the country.
Citizen Lab, a team of cybersecurity experts affiliated with the University of Toronto, unearthed what is believed to be the largest forensically documented hacking attempt to date with Pegasus, a program that silently infiltrates and potentially infiltrates phones to collect data. had taken it out. spying on their owners.
At least 65 high-profile figures of the Catalan pro-independence camp – including elected officials, civil society leaders, lawyers and their relatives – have been targeted by NSO Group’s Pegasus or other programs created by Candiru, another Israeli technology firm. According to Citizen Lab, Candiru’s spyware allows third parties to send messages or emails by impersonating the phone owner.
Both NSO Group, which owns Pegasus, and Candiru have been criticized by global rights groups for violating users’ privacy and facing lawsuits from some of the world’s leading tech companies.
The companies claim that their software is sold to government agencies solely to target criminals and terrorists. Citizen Lab said its research into alleged spying on Catalan separatists found evidence of “a strong link with one or more entities within the Spanish government.”
“No espionage here, no eavesdropping unless it falls under the law,” government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez said during a weekly briefing on Tuesday.
When asked if the country’s intelligence services, known as the CNI, had contracted for the use of Pegasus, Rodriguez said, “There are issues that are legally protected and classified material because they relate to national security.”
Several politicians and activists who were allegedly targeted simultaneously appeared at a press conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, where they pledged to sue for transparency in Spain, as well as in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg, where some are located. The alleged hacking event took place. Luxembourg is also the headquarters of the NSO Group’s European subsidiary.
Speakers included a European Union MP and former Catalan regional chief Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain in 2017 to avoid prosecution after a banned independence referendum held under his auspices.
“The Spanish state has orchestrated a criminal conspiracy to attack a legitimate, democratic political movement,” said Puigdemont, who also urged the leaders of the EU executive branch to investigate the use of the controversial spyware and, in his own words, “to hold Spain accountable.” ”
Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles, who oversees the country’s intelligence apparatus, will appear before national lawmakers to answer questions on the matter, the government said.
Pere Aragonès, the current head of the Catalonia regional administration, said that political relations with central authorities cannot continue as normal until the left-to-center coalition led by Pedro Sánchez has fully investigated the hacking with external audit. Aragonès’ own phone was among those allegedly targeted by Pegasus during his previous tenure as vice president of the region.
Almost all of the espionage incidents identified by Citizen Lab occurred between 2017 and 2020, when efforts to establish an independent state in northeastern Spain led to the country’s deepest political crisis in decades.
[ad_2]
Source link