{"id":303225,"date":"2021-07-19T17:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/pegasus-spyware-affair-completely-unacceptable-if-true-eu-chief\/"},"modified":"2021-07-19T17:00:33","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T14:00:33","slug":"pegasus-spyware-affair-completely-unacceptable-if-true-eu-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/pegasus-spyware-affair-completely-unacceptable-if-true-eu-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"#Pegasus spyware affair ‘completely unacceptable’ if true: EU chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Pegasus spyware affair ‘completely unacceptable’ if true: EU chief<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Monday the spyware scandal involving an Israeli software firm and up to 50,000 smartphone numbers was “completely unacceptable” if true.<\/p>\n

“This has to be verified, but if it is the case, it is completely unacceptable,” she told reporters in Prague.<\/p>\n

Media<\/a> outlets including The Washington Post, The Guardian and Le Monde drew links Sunday between the Israel-based NSO Group, accused of supplying spyware to governments, and a list of tens of thousands of smartphone numbers, including those of activists, journalists, business executives and politicians around the world.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen, who was in Prague to present a Czech post-COVID recovery plan worth 7 billion euros ($8.2 billion) app<\/a>roved by the EU, slammed the alleged attack on journalists’ phones.<\/p>\n

“Free press is one of the core values of the European Union,” she said after meeting Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis.<\/p>\n

The NSO Group and its Pegasus malware\u2014capable of switching on a phone’s camera or microphone, and harvesting its data\u2014have been in the headlines since 2016, when researchers accused it of helping spy on a dissident in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

The leak consists of more than 50,000 smartphone numbers believed to have been identified as connected to people of interest by NSO clients since 2016, the news<\/a> organizations said, although it was unclear how many devices were actually targeted or surveilled.<\/p>\n

NSO has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, NSO Group is based in the Israeli hi-tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.\n <\/p>\n\n

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50,000 phone numbers worldwide on list linked to Israeli spyware: reports\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Pegasus spyware affair ‘completely unacceptable’ if true: EU chief (2021, July 19)
\n retrieved 20 July 2021
\n from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2021-07-pegasus-spyware-affair-unacceptable-true.html<\/p>\n

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