At least 30 activists in Thailand involved in pro-democracy protests calling for reforms to the monarchy in 2021 and 2021 had their cell phones infected with the infamous Pegasus software, a spying tool developed by the Israel-based cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group. That’s according a collaborative investigation by the Citizen Lab and the Thai civil society groups iLaw and DigitalReach.
The investigation began after several Thai civil society members received notifications from Apple sent to their iPhones that they may have been a target of a state-backed spyware attack in November 2021. The recipients included individuals that Apple believes were targeted with NSO Group’s FORCEDENTRY exploit. Following the notification, multiple recipients contacted civil society groups.
The victims, who include academics, activists and civil society leaders, were monitored by an unnamed entity using Pegasus during the past two years, the investigation found.
According to the results of a technical analysis of forensic artifacts, the infections occurred between October 2020 to November 2021.
“While many of the infections were detected on the devices of prominent figures, hacking was also observed against individuals who are not publicly involved in the protests,” Citizen Lab’s report notes.
In June, NSO Group admitted that at least five EU countries have used its product and said that the company cancelled at least one contract with an EU member country following abuse of its surveillance software. The Israeli spyware maker stressed on the need to create an international body on spyware regulation, “something similar to a non-proliferation agreement,” where only countries that agree to the established rules will be able to use the technology.
The Israel-based firm faced a lot of criticism after it came to light that NSO’s hacking software was abused by some governments to spy on activists, politicians and journalists. The company repeatedly denied allegations, insisting that Pegasus is only intended for use against criminals and terrorists.