The Colombian Attorney General has announced the opening of an investigation into the alleged acquisition and illegal use of Pegasus spyware, which was allegedly purchased for cash by a police unit without being recorded in official accounting records.
The decision to open an investigation was made after the president's televised speech. Colombia Gustavo Petro, who said a unit of the national police bought the spy software for $11 million in cash without documenting the transaction in its books.
According to the president, the software was purchased by the country's previous administration under Ivan Duque. He assessed that the program could have been used by the authorities to eavesdrop on political opponents, including himself.
– How $11 million leaves the country in a plane or two (…) to go to Israel to purchase software that eavesdrops on mobile phones, the private communications of politicians, perhaps for months? – Petro asked in a television speech.
The president demanded that the attorney general's office open an investigation and determine what the police used the software for. He also asked the police to provide all documents related to Pegasus.
Shortly after this speech, the Colombian Attorney General announced the opening of an investigation. “The investigation aims to determine, among other things, whether negotiations between DIPOL (police intelligence – ed.) and (Israeli company) NSO were finalized, and if a purchase was made, where the money came from and what the transfer of cash from Colombia to Israel involved,” reads a statement issued Thursday by the Colombian Attorney General.
READ MORE: Everything we know about Pegasus
What is Pegasus software?
Israeli company NSO introduced Pegasus software to the global market in 2011. The tool proved to be a breakthrough in pursuing criminals and terrorists.
The New York Times has pointed out that the product has repeatedly contributed to spectacular successes of governments in the fight against organized crime and terrorism. It mentions, for example, the capture by Mexican authorities of Joaquín Guzmán, the drug lord known as “El Chapo”, or the dismantling by European investigators of a global pedophile network operating in over 40 countries.
Pegasus was also used to thwart terrorist plots. In the article “Battle for the world's most powerful cyber weapon”, the American daily wrote that Pegasus was also sold to Poland, Hungarians and India despite questionable data on compliance human rights in these countries.
Citizen Lab, which investigates software use cases, explains that Pegasus provides “complete access” to the infected mobile device.
The details of such action Piotr Januszewicz said in an interview with tvn24.plcybersecurity expert, co-founder of the Armed Forces Cyber Security Center.
He said that this type of software exploits vulnerabilities in phone systems. – From the moment of break-in, the phone performs actions programmed by the person who broke in. A system like Pegasus allows access to all phone functions, such as calls, text messages, all data, location, microphone and cameras – he pointed out.
He explained that after using it, all photos and messages will be available, including those written using encrypted messengers, such as the popular WhatsApp. With Pegasus, you can do things like resetting your phone, uninstalling applications, taking screenshots, taking pictures with the front and rear cameras, and recording videos.
The Pegasus Affair in Poland
Pegasus was used to spy on many influential people, which was confirmed, among others, in Poland.
On February 19, the parliamentary inquiry committee on Pegasus published a list of people who were or could have been victims of Pegasus or other software used by the services for surveillance.
Apart from Krzysztof Brejza, Roman GiertychEwa Wrzosek and Michał Kołodziejczak – whose use of Pegasus had already been confirmed by Citizen Lab organizations, Amnesty International or other entities – it included: Adam HoffmanDawid Jackiewicz, Mariusz Antoni Kamiński, Slawomir NowakGrzegorz Napieralski, Paweł Tamborski, Rafał Baniak, Jakub Banaś, Ryszard Brejza, Magdalena Łośko, Jacek Karnowski, Andrzej Malinowski, Andrzej Długosz, Tomasz Szwajgiert, Waldemar Skrzypczak and Katarzyna Kaczmarek. According to the reports of RMF FM Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was also allegedly wiretapped with Pegasus.
Moreover, on March 4 this year, “Superwizjer” TVN and “Gazeta Wyborcza” reported that in the National Prosecutor's Office during Zbigniew Ziobro “highly advanced analytical tools were in operation”, as confirmed by the acting national prosecutor Jacek Bilewicz.
According to information from “Superwizjer”, this concerns the Hermes system, used as a tool for criminal analysis in the Department of Economic Crime, where important investigations for Zbigniew Ziobro's team were conducted. In the media, the Hermes system was sometimes referred to as “a more advanced Pegasus” or “Pegasus bis”.
READ PREMIUM TEXT: Hermes Secrets: We reveal who sold the surveillance system to Ziobro's prosecutor's office
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