Colombia is tracking the sophisticated Pegasus spyware in the country, allegedly acquired by the government in 2021 to intercept opponents, in an investigation that stirs up a past of scandals over illegal wiretapping.
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The advanced program, which remotely accesses messages, calls and files on a phone, would have been purchased for $11 million during the mandate of right-wing former president Iván Duque, Israeli journalist Gur Megiddo reported in March.
The complaint was supported on September 4 by President Gustavo Petro. On national television he read a classified document the state-owned Financial Intelligence and Analysis Unit (UIAF) with details on the purchase from the Israeli manufacturer NSO Group.
“Who else was intercepted? With what court order? (…) Where did the money come from?” Petro asked in an erratic speech, and described that the operation, of two payments in June and November 2021, included the cinematic trip of a private plane with cash from Bogotá to Tel Aviv.
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The IUAF document, sent by its Israeli counterpart, describes “data, routes, dates and amounts of money” which will allow an investigation to be launched, Defense Minister Iván Velásquez announced on Wednesday.
But the difficulty of the mission is obvious: find, three years later, the trace of a powerful program carefully created to be imperceptible.
“It’s very sophisticated software that usually leaves no trace,” admitted Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo on Tuesday.
President Gustavo Petro
EFE
Mission impossible?
Former officials of the Duque government, who deny the purchase, have described the complaint as a “smokescreen” launched during an intense protest by transporters. In turn, more than 50 heads of state entities have requested an investigation.
Wiretapping is not new in Colombia and has affected several governments, including Petro’s. His right-hand man, Laura Sarabia is being investigated for spying on a nanny in a case marked by the death of a police officer involved in mid-2023.
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In June, a judge of the Constitutional Court reported alleged wiretapping of his phone.
Petro, in turn, was a victim of espionage between 2006 and 2009. by the dissolved Administrative Security Department (DAS), which intercepted judges, journalists and politicians.
Finding Pegasus footprints “It is a complicated task. That is why it is such a sought-after system,” Luis Garcia, director of the Network in Defense of Digital Rights, who is investigating its use in Mexico, where thousands of phones have been spied on, told AFP. “during three different governments.”
In a similar case, More than 20 Salvadoran journalists reported in 2022 that their cell phones were tapped.
“They became suspicious when their phones would not allow updates and would reboot at night. Or they would receive messages with links to fake articles,” Christian Alvarado of the Salvadoran Journalists Association told AFP.
Pegasus is “one of the largest malware in history,” capable of “take control of a device even without the user downloading a file,” warned Mexican cybersecurity specialist Carlos Ramírez to AFP.
García sheds some light on the mission outlined in Colombia. “With advanced tools it is possible to detect ‘indicators of compromise’, which are records left by the program on the phones,” he commented, although “there is a risk that they will be lost over time.”
The expert suggested that Israel could confirm whether it licensed the software, since the sale requires its approval. But the diplomatic path is closed for Colombia, which broke relations with that country in May and called its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a “genocidal”.
Global controversy
More than 50,000 phones have reportedly been spied on with Pegasus since 2016 worldwide, including that of French President Emmanuel Macron, as revealed in 2021 by the group of journalists Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International.
The findings have turned eyes toward Israel, questioned for its “absolute lack of legal cooperation” by a Spanish judge in charge of investigating the interception of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
But spyware also appears to be a problem at home. In 2022, it became known that politicians and businessmen, including Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, were spied on during Naftali Bennet’s government.
NSO Group has been added to a list of banned companies in the United States, where it is facing a lawsuit from Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp and Facebook, for having penetrated its servers to infect thousands of phones.
AFP
