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Catalan’s regional parliament speaker’s cellphone targeted by spy programme used by governments

cde.news desk · 1 min read
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epa08490184 Speaker of the Catalan regional Parliament, Roger Torrent, wears a facial mask next to the Spanish (L) and Catalan (2L) flags during a plenary session in Barcelona, Spain, 17 June 2020. EPA-EFE/Quique Garcia / POOL pool

The cellphone used by the speaker in the Catalan regional parliament, Roger Torrent, was targeted with Pegasus, a spy program developed by an Israeli company named NSO, and which can only be purchased by governments and security forces and used to target crime and terrorism.

Torrent’s phone was attacked using Pegasus in 2019, according to a joint investigation by EL PAÍS and The Guardian.

The intrusion into the handset of the pro-Catalan independence politician, who belongs to the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) party, was possible due to a security fault in the WhatsApp messaging service that, between April and May 2019, could be used to install the NSO spy program in at least 1,400 cellphones across the world. The method for the attack was a missed video call, according to WhatsApp.

El Pais

 

Topics CatalunyaRoger TorrentSpain