Poland’s new prime minister claimed that he has documentation proving that state officials under the previous government illegally used the powerful Pegasus spyware to target a “very long” list of hackers.
Poland’s new prime minister has documents indicating that state authorities under the previous government illegally employed the powerful Pegasus spyware to target a “very long” list of hackers, the prime minister said on Tuesday.
Donald Tusk made the statement with President Andrzej Duda, a political opponent of the previous ruling party. The use of Pegasus was reported to have occurred during the administration of the right-wing Law and Justice party.
Pegasus provides operators with complete access to a mobile device, allowing them to collect passwords, photographs, messages, contacts, and browser history, as well as activate the microphone and camera for real-time eavesdropping.
Tusk stated that he was sharing material with Duda that demonstrated widespread use of the spyware in Poland.
“This is only a sample of the documents that are at your disposal, Mr. President,” he remarked at the outset of a Cabinet Council meeting, which serves as a consultation forum between the president and the cabinet. Duda called the meeting to discuss other issues.
The prime minister requested that the justice minister and prosecutor general provide Duda with papers that “confirm 100% the purchase and use of Pegasus in a legal and illegal manner.”
The president has not given a public response.
Tusk gained office in December after winning the October election as the leader of a wide centrist alliance. It marked the end of eight years of power by Law and Justice, a populist party accused by the European Union of undermining democratic standards.
The new parliament has appointed a special commission to investigate who utilized Pegasus and against whom during Law and Justice’s tenure in office.
“The list of victims of these practices is unfortunately very long,” Mr. Tusk added. The list has not been made public.
According to research by the University of Toronto’s NGO Citizen Lab, some Polish opponents of the former government were targeted with Pegasus, a spyware tool developed by Israel’s NSO Group.
“This vindicates the victims and the technical and forensic methods we used to confirm infections,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab who found the first Pegasus cases in Poland.
“Commercial spyware, such as Pegasus, is dangerous to democracy and has built-in abuse potential,” Scott-Railton stated.
The NSO Group has stated that it only sells its spyware to legitimate government law enforcement and intelligence organizations approved by Israel’s Defense Ministry for use against terrorists and criminals. However, evidence suggests that governments around the world are targeting human rights advocates and politicians.
Some of the people who were hacked received notifications on their iPhones from Apple, which they then confirmed with Citizen Lab.
Scott-Railton stated that Tusk’s affirmation “affirms the critical role Apple’s threat notifications play in driving accountability for commercial spyware abuses.” In Poland, these messages were the first indication for academics and journalists that a spyware crisis was lurking.
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