The smartphone of Pedro SanchezPresident of Spain and the Minister of Defense, Margaret Oaksare infected with pegasus, confirmed the Minister of the Presidency at a press conference called urgently this Monday. “These are illegal and external infections” in which there has been an “extraction of a certain volume of data from the terminals,” said Félix Bolaños. They also assure that they have been aware of the “concrete reports” of the intrusions during “yesterday.”
Bolaños has cited two technical reports in which he reveals that there have been two intrusions into Pedro Sánchez using Pegasus. One of them in May and another in June 2021. In addition to another intervention in the terminal of the Minister of Defense, during June 2021. There is no evidence of subsequent violations.
The two reports from the National Cryptologic Center have been brought to justice. A complaint has been filed with the court of instruction number 4 of the National High Court. According to the Government, espionage it is illegal since there is no judicial authorization to install Pegasus on those devices“.
Spying with Pegasus on Pedro Sánchez’s smartphone produced an extraction of 2.6 GB of information during the first intrusion. 130 MB during the second. The government spokesman does not know what type of information was extracted from, although apparently the president did not keep confidential content or documents on his device.
The verification launched by the body dependent on the Ministry of Defense was produced as a result of information about espionage using Pegasus that has affected dozens of people linked to the Catalan independence movement.
The government is scanning the phones of its other members to determine if there are more Pegasus spyware infections. The information obtained from this investigation will be brought to the attention of the justice system. The National Cryptologic Center requires to keep the phones between 24 and 36 hours. “We are absolutely certain that it is an external attack. All interventions are carried out by state agencies and with judicial authorization. We have no doubt that it is an external intervention,” Bolaños explained.
“When we say external intrusions, we mean that they are foreign to state agencies and do not have judicial authorization from any official body. That is why we describe them as illegal and external. For now we have not finished verifying the terminals of the Government as a whole” , detailed the Minister of the Presidency.
No more spying on Pedro Sánchez after the two intrusions discovered
The spokesman for the Executive has confirmed that there have been no subsequent violations using the spyware Pegasus to Pedro Sánchez, even failed attempts. “Since those dates there has been no subsequent intervention. There is no evidence that any subsequent intrusion has occurred in those two terminals.”
“The Government has implemented and will continue to implement measures to reinforce the security protocols in the communications of all official bodies that we will make available not only to the central administration but also to regional governments, regional parliaments, local entities and institutions in general. […] This type of situation of illegal and external intrusions cannot occur in any terminal of any public official in this country”.
“The Government is acting with all the capacities at its disposal to clarify these facts, to protect the security of communications and guarantee the fundamental right of people. That has been the unequivocal commitment of the Government since the first information was received in those who realized the use of Pegasus outside of legal controls. That has been the commitment and that will be the norm that the Government will implement to the letter,” he said.
What is Pegasus and is it possible to avoid its infection?
But it is not as simple as the Minister Minister of the Presidency Pedro Bolaños indicates. And it is that pegasus is a spyware developed by the Israeli company NGO Group that can be installed on iPhones without intervention or interaction by the user. Furthermore, it is invisible and untraceable to its origin. That is, you cannot know who is behind the infection. Originally offered for lawful use by governments, it has ended up being used to spy on relevant people without warrants and for questionable purposes.
The use of this spy software became an international scandal when a group of international media discovered that it was used to monitor 37 smartphones belonging to human rights activists and journalists. In addition, according to an initiative called Pegasus Project of Amnesty International, it was determined that the spyware it is in wide use on high-profile targets around the world.