Pegasus spyware was found on the phones of five French ministers. That’s what research site Mediapart says Thursday.
Traces of the spy software have been found on the phones of French ministers Jean-Michel Blanquer (Education), Jacqueline Gourault (Spatial Development), Julien Denormandie (Agriculture), Emmanuelle Wargon (Housing) and Sébastien Lecornu (Overseas Territories). None of them responded to questions from the research site.
According to The Guardian, there are no direct indications that the French ministers ‘ phones have been hacked. It is therefore impossible to say with certainty whether the ministers have also been monitored with the software.
Pegasus was developed by the Israeli NSO Group. According to the organization, the software is only made to help governments and intelligence agencies detect crime.
The software has been under attack for some time. Earlier this year, a list of 50,000 phone numbers of infected devices was discovered. Among the victims were journalists, activists and business leaders around the world. The phone of French President Emmanuel Macron is also reported to be infected.
NSO Group stated in a statement during the night of Thursday to Friday that French government employees have never been the target of Pegasus attacks.
