AMMAN (Middle East Eye) – Online hackers linked to the Jordanian government have been using Pegasus spyware on the smartphones of human rights activists during protests in the country since 2019, according to a report from privacy groups.
A joint report released on Tuesday by Front Line Defenders and Citizen Lab, two groups focusing on privacy and digital rights violations, found that four Jordanian lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders had been victims of a hacking campaign.
Front Line Defenders and Citizen Lab said that they found that four devices belonging to Jordanian individuals had been hacked with Pegasus between August 2019 and December 2021.
Two spyware operators, MANSAF and BLACKIRIS, were identified as having been active since late December 2018 and December 2020 respectively. Both operators appear to have links to Jordan’s security agencies.
However, MANSAF had also targeted phones in Iraq, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, while the hacking activities of BLACKIRIS were exclusive to Jordan.
Pegasus was developed by the the Zionist regime’s NSO Group and used by countries including Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to illegally access the phone data of activists and journalists worldwide.
In a statement, Front Line Defenders and Citizen Lab said that “we find once again that a client of NSO Group has used Pegasus to spy on civil society targets that are neither terrorists nor criminals”.
Ahmed al-Neimat, an anti-corruption activist, Malik Abu Orabi, a lawyer, and Suhair Jaradat, a human rights defender, were targeted by Pegasus.
The fourth was a journalist and women’s human rights defender called “A”, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of risks she may face.
Front Line Defenders and Citizen Lab said that the new revelation showed an “indisputable indictment against NSO Group, and its ownership, for their inability or unwillingness to put in place even the most basic human rights-respecting safeguards”.
Jordanian activists were targeted with Pegasus by using a zero-click technique, harvesting phone data, photos, emails and voice messages, and turning the phone into a tracking and monitoring device.
They have received WhatsApp and iMessage texts directing them to links impersonating websites of news agencies, retailers, clothing and delivery firms.
Up to 200 Jordanians were targeted by Pegasus. In February, they called on their government to investigate how their phones had been hacked.