After Pegasus, new Israeli spyware in use identified in Hungary!

Canadian cybersecurity company Citizen Lab identified a new Israeli spyware, which could have been used in Hungary. They have successfully identified victims in other countries.

New Israeli spyware

New Israeli spyware, similar to the infamous Pegasus programme, was used to target journalists and opposition politicians in several countries, according to information released by Canada’s Citizen Lab, telex.hu reports.

The cybersecurity organisation has identified servers that are highly likely to have been used to run spyware from the Israeli company QuaDream. Among the servers were some whose operation was traced back to Hungary.

In some cases, operators of the QuaDream servers have also been identified. The Canadian organisation detected operations in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ghana, Israel, Mexico, Romania, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates.

According to Citizen Lab’s analysis, there is a high degree of certainty that the Israeli company’s spyware could have been used or is still in use in these countries.

It is unclear, whether the operators have targeted Hungarian people. As MEMO points out, CitizenLab was able to identify at least five people who were targeted by the QuaDream programme in North America, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The list of victims includes “journalists, opposition political figures, and an NGO employee”. The firm did not reveal their identities.

• Read also: What is the Belarus foreign minister doing in Hungary?
  

Hungarian government caught red-handed by Pegasus use

The “Pegasus Project”, a collective project of 17 investigative journals, has revealed serious misuse of spyware by national governments, including Hungary. The Pegasus spyware is only meant for use against terrorists and serious criminals by national security agencies. However, the spyware was used by the Hungarian government to monitor or attempt to monitor journalists, activists, lawyers and politicians.

Although Hungarian politicians tried to deflect questions about whether the government used or purchased the spyware or not, MP Lajos Kósa accidentally confirmed it by acknowledging that Hungary did use military-grade spyware.

As a result, 6 people who have been spied on, 4 journalists, a Ph.D. student and activist and an individual who wished to remain anonymous, attempt to sue the state. The European Parliament decided at the beginning of March last year to set up a Pegasus Committee of Inquiry, but their work so far has not yielded publicly available results.

Read also: US leak scandal: Hungarian leaders also wiretapped by the United States?