The phones of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles were illegally breached on three occasions last year and exposed pieces of data to illegal access, Cabinet Minister Félix Bolaños told a news conference. “There is no doubt that this was an illegal intervention outside the state without any judicial permission,” Bolaños said, adding that details of the incidents in May and June 2021 had been sent to the Spanish national court for investigation. He did not comment on where the attacks came from. French President Emmanuel Macron changed his phone and number last year following media reports that he and 14 French government ministers had been targeted using Pegasus. Spain’s allegations, however, are the first time a government has confirmed the use of spyware against a national leader. The Pegasus was developed by the Israeli NSO team as a cyber tool to be used by authorized governments to combat terrorism and crime. But its alleged use against opposition politicians, rights activists and others has been widely criticized by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations. Spyware, which is officially only available to government agencies, can infiltrate cell phones by exploiting unknown vulnerabilities in their operating systems and then, without the phone owner’s knowledge, collecting data on the device and transmitting it to the attacker. It can also be used for real-time monitoring by activating microphones and cameras. The revelation that the phones of senior government officials in Madrid had been infected by Pegasus came as the regional government of Catalonia accused the National Information Center of Spain (CNI) of using the same spyware to hack into the mobile phones of 2017 and 2020. According to Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity monitoring service based at the University of Toronto, the phones of more than 60 people associated with the Catalan independence movement, including the current and three former presidents of the region, were targeted using Pegasus and espionage software. was developed by Candiru, another Israeli company. Pere Aragonés, the leader of Catalonia’s regional government, condemned the spying against Sanchez and Robles on Monday, but accused the Madrid government of delaying action on allegations of widespread espionage by Catalan politicians and other independent supporters. “I know what it is like to be spied on, to have your intimacy and political activity violated,” he said on Twitter. “But there is a clear double standard here.” Madrid took immediate action, while “the mass monitoring of the Catalan institutions was met with silence and excuses”. The NSO Group has stated that it is pursuing a policy of zero tolerance for the use of its software against political targets. The EU has condemned the illegal use of Pegasus and promised legislation on stricter privacy rules. However, he has said that prosecuting specific cases is the responsibility of national authorities. In February, the EU data service recommended banning the use of Pegasus within the bloc. A European Parliament committee last week launched an investigation into the alleged use of spyware in countries such as Spain, Hungary, Poland and Greece. The NSO Group said in a statement that it would cooperate with the Spanish government’s investigations. She described any possible targeting of journalists, dissidents and politicians as a “serious abuse” of her technology. “While we have not seen any information about this alleged abuse and are not familiar with the details of this particular case, the NSO’s firm stance on these issues is that the use of cyber tools to monitor politicians, dissidents, activists and contradicts the desirable use of such critical tools. “
