आईसीटी समाचार
An Israeli daily reported Monday that police used Pegasus spyware to hack the phones of dozens of famous Israelis, including a son of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, activists, and top government officials. The shocking news comes from the business journal Calcalist, which earlier alleged that police deployed Pegasus against leaders of an anti-Netanyahu protest movement without judicial approval. Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said he has urged Public Security Minister Omer Barlev to form "an external and impartial commission of investigation, led by a judge," to investigate the claims "after the recent revelations."
"Any irregularities or shortcomings found by the commission will be dealt with in line with the law," Shabtai said in a statement. Pegasus is a virus program developed by the Israeli corporation NSO that has been at the center of an international crisis for months following reports that it was used by governments throughout the world to spy on activists, politicians, journalists, and even heads of state. Israel had been chastised for allowing the invasive equipment to be exported to countries with a bad human rights record, but the Calcalist disclosures have sparked a local crisis and various official inquiries.
The attorney general, state comptroller, and the justice ministry's privacy watchdog all announced investigations into the possible use of Pegasus on Israelis before to Monday's news. Calcalist said in its most recent report that scores of people were targeted despite the fact that they were not accused of any criminal activity and that police did not have the appropriate judicial authorisation. Senior officials from the ministries of finance, justice, and communication, as well as mayors and Ethiopian-Israelis who spearheaded rallies against suspected police wrongdoing, are among them.
Calcalist stated that crucial witness Ilan Yeshua, former chief executive of the Walla news site, was also targeted in another bombshell that is poised to upset Netanyahu's current corruption trial. Pegasus is a surveillance application that may activate the camera or microphone on a phone and collect data. Throughout the multi-stranded Pegasus affair, NSO has continuously denied wrongdoing, emphasizing that it does not run the system once it is sold to customers and has no access to any of the data acquired.
