By Mohamed Maher – 5 minutes read

Military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm – NSO – to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists and business executives.

The phones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers. The numbers on the list are unattributed, but reporters were able to identify more than 1,000 people spanning more than 50 countries through research and interviews on four continents: several Arab royal family members, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials — including cabinet ministers, diplomats, and military and security officers. The numbers of several heads of state and prime ministers also appeared on the list.

NSO had luck recruiting major U.S. political figures to help secure contracts.

Starting 2015, OSY Technologies, and a previous owner, Francisco Partners, paid roughly $100,000 to Michael Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Obama’s Administration, for what Flynn said was “consulting” work.

NSO’s parent, OSY, headquartered in Luxembourg, paid Obama’s homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, to review the company’s new Human Rights Policy. Johnson, a partner at the elite law firm Paul, Weiss, gave his stamp of approval, saying it appeared to be “substantially aligned” with United Nations principles. An official U.N. expert was less celebratory, saying it did not address the “legacy of harm perpetuated as a result of NSO Group’s failure to ensure that its technology is used responsibly.” Johnson declined to comment.

Q Cyber Technologies, which NSO says it is a subsidiary of, has also benefited from the legal services of Dan Jacobson, whom the Biden administration in March named general counsel for the Office of Administration, financial disclosure filings show.

Ex-Obama official exits Israeli spyware firm amid press freedom row

Juliette Kayyem, a former Obama administration official who has faced criticism from press freedom groups for her role as a senior adviser at NSO Group has stepped down from the Israeli spyware company.

The former Obama administration official did not respond to several requests for comment.

This brings a valid question, was the spyware Obama’s Administration used to spy on the European leaders, politicians and journalists developed by NSO, or was it Pegasus itself!?

German government bodies urged to remove their Facebook Pages before next year

June 25, Ulrich Kelber wrote to government agencies “strongly recommend[ing]” them to close down their official Facebook accounts and pages, due to the ongoing data protection compliance issues and Facebook’s failure to fix such issue.

In the letter, Kelber warns the government authorities that he intends to start taking enforcement action from January 2022, giving them a deadline till January next year to pull their pages from Facebook.

Facebook has a long history of ignoring privacy expectations and data protection laws.

Obama administration spied on German media as well as its government

The NSA spying on German officials is not new, though it continues to upset free press advocates and those with memories of repressive governments both Communist and Nazi. In 2013, the German magazine Der Spiegel, using information gleaned from files stolen and leaked by Edward Snowden, first reported that the NSA was intercepting German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone communications.

the NSA was eavesdropping not only on Merkel, but also in some capacity on Germany’s free press, specifically Der Spiegel.

In early summer 2011, the CIA station chief in Berlin (also representing the NSA at the U.S. Embassy) met with Heiss and his assistant Guido Müller. The CIA station chief urged the two men to take action against Heiss’ deputy, Hans-Josef Vorbeck, who he said was leaking classified information to journalists.

“It feels bitter to learn that American intelligence agencies spied on reporters in another country and denounced alleged sources to the government,” said one reporter involved, who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions from his government or the U.S. government. “This is something I expected to happen in authoritarian states like Russia or China, but not in a democracy.”

Without question, Der Spiegel has broken many stories that have frustrated the U.S. intelligence community, including the “extraordinary rendition” of Mohammed Haydar Zammar to Syria, The German Islamic extremist who has been locked in a dungeon in Damascus for the past four years as part of Washington’s post-9/11 “extraordinary renditions” program. By placing the man with suspected ties to the Hamburg al-Qaida cell in Syrian hands, the United States is allowing Damascus to commit torture so that it doesn’t have to.

NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders after US official handed over contacts

The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its “customer” departments, such as the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their “Rolodexes” so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems.

The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately “tasked” for monitoring by the NSA.

German Interior Minister Bans iPhones, BlackBerrys, Bild Says

In 2012, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has banned the use of Apple Inc. iPhones and Research in Motion Ltd BlackBerrys by his ministry employees because the servers linked to the devices are located in the U.S., Bild-Zeitung reported, citing unnamed intelligence officials.

The numbers on the list are unattributed, but reporters were able to identify more than 1,000 people spanning more than 50 countries through research and interviews on four continents: several Arab royal family members, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials — including cabinet ministers, diplomats, and military and security officers. The numbers of several heads of state and prime ministers also appeared on the list.