Poland’s PM accuses previous government of using Pegasus spyware for illegal snooping

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“Very long” list of spyware snooping victims

Brussels, Belgium. 15th November 2018. EU Council President Donald Tusk gives a press conference on results of EU-South Africa summit.
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Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has revealed that he has damning evidence that the previous Law and Justice administration used Pegasus spyware to spy on a “very long” list of victims.

The Pegasus spyware, developed by the Israeli NSO Group, provides covert surveillance and full access to infected devices including passwords, stored photos, communications, and can activate the camera and microphone for live surveillance.

The Law and Justice party lost power during last year’s October elections, and was previously criticized by the European Union for refusing to cooperate with investigators looking into the use of spyware on critics and political rivals.

Scandalous surveillance state

In a press briefing, Tusk revealed that his special commission for investigating the use of the spyware had found evidence that “confirm 100% the purchase and use of Pegasus in a legal and illegal manner.”

The Polish prime minister was joined by the country's president, Andrzej Duda, who is aligned with the Law and Justice party. The president has not yet publicly responded to the accusations against the previous administration.

According to AP, during the 2019 election campaign an opposition member was targeted almost three dozen times by spyware. The stolen data was later used in smear campaigns aired on TV by the Law and Justice party.

“This is only a sample of the documents that are at your disposal, Mr. President,” Tusk said during the meeting, “The list of victims of these practices is unfortunately very long.”

Speaking to AP, John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at Citizen Lab said, “This vindicates the victims and the technical and forensic methods we used to confirm infections.

“Commercial spyware like Pegasus is dangerous to democracy and carries a baked-in abuse potential.”

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Benedict Collins
Benedict Collins
Staff Writer (Security)

Benedict has been writing about security issues for over 7 years, first focusing on geopolitics and international relations while at the University of Buckingham. During this time he studied BA Politics with Journalism, for which he received a second-class honours (upper division),  then continuing his studies at a postgraduate level, achieving a distinction in MA Security, Intelligence and Diplomacy. Upon joining TechRadar Pro as a Staff Writer, Benedict transitioned his focus towards cybersecurity, exploring state-sponsored threat actors, malware, social engineering, and national security. Benedict is also an expert on B2B security products, including firewalls, antivirus, endpoint security, and password management.