Several members of opposition political groups in Poland have provided evidence that they were hacked by the Pegasus spyware, raising troubling questions about the Polish government's use of the software.
See also: Dubai Sheikh uses NSO Group's Pegasus spyware to hack his ex-wife
The most disturbing case involved the leader of Civic Platform , Senator Krzysztof Brejza, whose phone was hacked a total of 33 times in the six months leading up to the 2019 election, the Associated Press reports. During his campaign, Polish state media published damaging messages taken from Brejza’s phone, leading to concerns that spyware was used.
The breaches were discovered by Citizen Lab, a spyware research group based at the University of Toronto, which has conducted extensive research into the Pegasus program. Citizen Lab had previously found evidence linking the Pegasus spyware to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and a separate campaign against a New York Times journalist.
See also: Fake Amnesty International Pegasus scanner infects Windows devices
In the Poland case, Citizen Lab also found evidence of a spyware breach targeting a lawyer representing Polish opposition groups and a prosecutor involved in a case against the ruling Law and Justice party. In both cases, traces of the Pegasus spyware were found on the targets’ devices.
Despite the evidence, the Polish government categorically denies any use of spyware, whether for intelligence gathering or internal surveillance. “The Pegasus system is not used by Polish services,” the deputy defense minister said recently, as reported by Politico Europe. “It is not used to monitor or investigate anyone in our country.”
However, the scandal is likely to have significant implications for Poland's standing in the European Union and broaden the case for further technical protections against Pegasus. In November, Apple filed a federal lawsuit against NSO Group (which develops and sells Pegasus), seeking a permanent injunction against the company's use of Apple products and services.
See also: Apple sues NSO Group for Pegasus iPhone attack
Amazon Web Services has blocked all accounts linked to NSO Group , and the US Treasury Department has moved to block exports or other transactions with the company, calling it a threat to “ the rules-based international order .”
