The Great iPwn: Journalists Hacked with Suspected NSO Group iMessage ‘Zero-Click’ Exploit

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Report#135--thegreatipwn.pdf (4.79 MB)

Date

2020-12-20

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Abstract

Government operatives used NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to hack 36 personal phones belonging to journalists, producers, anchors, and executives at Al Jazeera. The journalists were hacked by four Pegasus operators, including one operator MONARCHY that we attribute to Saudi Arabia, and one operator SNEAKY KESTREL that we attribute to the United Arab Emirates.

Description

Bill Marczak’s work on this report was supported, in part, by the International Computer Science Institute and the Center for Long-Term Cyber Security at the University of California, Berkeley. The authors would like to thank Bahr Abdul Razzak for review and assistance. Special thanks to several other reviewers who wish to remain anonymous as well as TNG. Thanks to Mari Zhou for design and layout assistance. Thanks to Al Jazeera and Tamer Almisshal for their investigative work on this project. Thanks to Al Araby and Rania Dridi. Thanks to Team Cymru for providing access to their Pure Signal data.

Keywords

NSO Group, Pegasus, hacking, surveillance, security, cybersecurity, Al Jazeera, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, spyware, exploit, commercial spyware

Citation

Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Noura Al-Jizawi, Siena Anstis, and Ron Deibert. "The Great iPwn: Journalists Hacked with Suspected NSO Group iMessage ‘Zero-Click’ Exploit," Citizen Lab Research Report No. 135, University of Toronto, December 2020.

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http://hdl.handle.net/1807/106226

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