At least one opposition member, a lawyer and a prosecutor were spied on using the Pegasus software. Opposition Leader Donald Tusk accuses the Conservative government of being behind it.
With our correspondent in Warsaw, Damien Simonart
” It’s the biggest, deepest crisis for democracy since 1989 Donald Tusk says of wiretapping. According to Citizen Lab, the cybersecurity agency in Toronto, the phone of the campaign manager of the Civic Coalition, Poland’s main opposition party, has been hacked at least 33 times using the Pegasus software. The espionage would have lasted six months in 2019 at the time of the European and legislative elections.
According to the Associated Press, two other figures of the opposition to PiS, a lawyer and a prosecutor, were also the subject of eavesdropping. The first regularly defends the interests of the Civic Coalition, the second openly criticizes the justice reform desired by the PiS.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki rejects accusations of espionage. However, Israeli software maker Pegasus says it only sells its product to governments and their intelligence agencies.
Smartphones infected with Pegasus, software designed and marketed by NSO Group, turn into pocket-sized spy devices, allowing the user to read their target’s messages, look at their photos, track their location and even ‘turn on his camera without his knowledge.