The surveillance capabilities of the notorious Pegasus spyware have been confirmed to be utilized in multiple instances within the Baltic countries, according to digital rights experts at Access Now. The cyber espionage tool has stealthily infiltrated smartphones, affecting at least seven Russian-speaking journalists and activists.
Experts at a seminar in Vilnius delved into the specifics of the attacks and offered advice on threat detection and gadget protection. The case of Galina Timchenko, the publisher of the Russian outlet Meduza based in Riga, brought the spying incidents to light, although the phone infection took place back in February 2023.
This revelation led to other dissidents, journalists, and civil activists recognizing and reporting similar cyber intrusions, which they either had previously underestimated or lacked information on how to address. Access Now experts highlighted an alarming trend of such cyber attacks extending beyond domestic borders, targeting Russian and Belarusian civil society activists and journalists who continue their work abroad.
Investigations by Access Now and Citizen Lab determined that the Pegasus program had compromised the devices of various individuals, including journalists Evgeny Erlich and Evgeny Pavlov of Riga, Maria Epifanova of Riga, Natalia Radina of Warsaw, as well as Belarusian activist currently in Vilnius and an unnamed Russian journalist.
Pegasus can easily access phone contents and even covertly activate recording devices, posing a formidable threat to personal security. The spyware exploits vulnerabilities in smartphones through ‘zero-click’ techniques, requiring no user interaction to install malicious software.
Apple’s efforts to alert victims of state-sponsored attacks offer some measure of detection, yet these notifications neither reflect the level of the attack’s success nor prevent unauthorized software installations.
The timing of these attacks in the Baltic region was previously assumed post-Russian war in Ukraine, however further exploration by Access Aligned incidents of phone tampering preceding this conflict, with one of the earliest dating back to August 2020, implicating the targeting of Russian-speaking journalists before recent geopolitical turmoil. Access Now and Citizen Lab linked the attacks across the EU countries by tracing back to the creation of counterfeit Apple IDs and emails associated with multiple victims’ breaches.
While it is uncertain who is specifically behind Pegasus’s deployment, Access Now confidently suggests that neither Russia nor Belarus are directly involved, as the technology falls outside their access scope. However, they acknowledge that numerous EU countries have had or continue to have the capability to use such sophisticated spy technologies.
Key Questions and Answers:
– What is Pegasus spyware?
Pegasus is a highly sophisticated mobile phone surveillance software developed by NSO Group, an Israeli cyberarms firm. It can covertly infiltrate smartphones, accessing personal data, and activating the phone’s camera and microphone for surveillance purposes.
– Who has been targeted by Pegasus in the Baltic countries?
Journalists and activists, particularly those speaking Russian, have been the primary targets. This includes individuals who are critical of the Russian and Belarusian governments and continue their work in the Baltic region.
– How do the attacks occur?
The attacks on smartphones are carried out through zero-click techniques, which exploit vulnerabilities in phone software and do not require any action from the user to install the malicious program.
– What are the implications of such attacks?
These intrusions constitute a threat to personal security, privacy, and the freedom of the press. They undermine the ability of journalists and activists to work safely and confidentially, potentially exposing sensitive information to unwanted scrutiny.
Key Challenges and Controversies:
– Digital Sovereignty: The use of spyware like Pegasus by or against individuals in the Baltic states raises serious questions regarding the sovereignty of these nations within their own digital space.
– Responsibility: Determining responsibility for the spyware attacks is challenging, especially given the international nature of such cyber espionage tools.
– Legality and Ethics: There is ongoing debate about the legality and ethics of using such invasive surveillance tools, particularly against civil society members and journalists.
Advantages and Disadvantages:
– Advantages:
– For state security services, surveillance tools like Pegasus can be advantageous for counter-terrorism and national security efforts.
– The existence of such tools pushes the technology market to develop better security measures for devices and software.
– Disadvantages:
– The misuse of such spyware can lead to privacy violations and undermine democratic freedoms and human rights.
– Victims may suffer personally and professionally due to unauthorized access to sensitive information.
– Spyware can diminish trust in state authorities if used without proper judicial oversight.
For more information on digital rights and the protection against cyber espionage, visit the main domains of organizations like Access Now at Access Now and Citizen Lab at Citizen Lab. These organizations offer resources and research on the topic of digital surveillance and threats to human rights related to digital privacy and security. Ensure that any information obtained from these sources is reviewed carefully for relevance and accuracy, given that the landscape of cyber surveillance and digital privacy evolves rapidly.
The source of the article is from the blog regiozottegem.be