Mobile
phones of at least five French ministers and a diplomatic adviser to President
Emmanuel Macron were infected with the Israeli-made Pegasus spyware. The
news agency AFP has given this report quoting sources. French security
services have detected the software while inspecting the phone. These
devices are believed to have been infected in 2019 and 2020. French
officials declined to comment on the matter.
According to the report, the
five ministers targeted are Education Minister Jean-Michel Blancar, Regional
Cohesion Minister Jacqueline Gourault, Agriculture Minister Julian Denormandi,
Housing Minister Emmanuel Vargan and Overseas Sector Minister Sebastien
Lecornu.
Let us tell you that Pegasus is capable of collecting the
details of every call made on the respective phone. Apart from the media
files and documents present in the phone, it can also give information about
incoming and outgoing SMS, email and social media messages on it. Pegasus
software is considered infallible in the field of espionage. In July 2020,
a list of 50,000 potential surveillance people was leaked to the media. The
list of potential targets included several French cabinet ministers, including
President Macron's phone number.
In July, Le Monde newspaper reported that evidence of a hacking attempt had been found on the phone of François de Rougi, a former environment minister and close Macron aide. It was reportedly reported to be from Morocco. However, Morocco has denied these allegations.
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