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File image of French president Emmanuel Macron. PA

France probes use of Pegasus spyware with Emmanuel Macron a possible target

The Paris prosecutor’s office is investigating the suspected use of spyware to target journalists, human rights activists and politicians in multiple countries.

THE MOBILE PHONES of French President Emmanuel Macron and 15 members of the French government may have been among potential targets of surveillance in 2019 by spyware made by the Israel-based NSO Group, according to a newspaper report.

The report by Le Monde follows an announcement by the Paris prosecutor’s office that it is investigating the suspected widespread use of NSO’s Pegasus spyware to target journalists, human rights activists and politicians in multiple countries.

Le Monde is part of a global media consortium that identified the targets from a leaked list of more than 50,000 phone numbers obtained by the Paris-based journalism non-profit Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International and shared with 16 news organisations which began publishing their findings on Sunday.

That same day, Amnesty released a forensic analysis of the alleged targeting that showed Amazon Web Services was hosting NSO infrastructure.

In response, Amazon said it shut down NSO accounts that were “confirmed to be supporting the reported hacking activity.” Amazon said they had violated its terms of use.

Another US company identified by Amnesty as hosting NSO servers was DigitalOcean. When contacted by The Associated Press, DigitalOcean neither confirmed nor denied whether it had identified or cut off such servers.

“All of the infrastructure outlined in the Amnesty report is no longer on DigitalOcean,” it said without elaborating in an email statement.

Le Monde said the phone numbers for Macron and the then-government members were among thousands allegedly selected by NSO clients for potential surveillance.

In this case, the client was an unidentified Moroccan security service, according to Le Monde.

Consortium members said they were able to link more than 1,000 numbers on the list with individuals, including more than 600 politicians and government officials and 189 journalists.

Among the numbers were those of journalists and politicians in France. The largest share were in Mexico and the Middle East, where Saudi Arabia is reported to be among NSO clients.

Also on the list were phone numbers in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Morocco and Rwanda, as well as ones for several Arab royal family members, heads of state and prime ministers, the consortium reported.

An official in Macron’s office said authorities would investigate Le Monde’s report, and if the targeting is proven, it would be “extremely grave.”

Le Monde quoted NSO as saying the French president was never targeted by its clients.

NSO Group denied that it ever maintained “a list of potential, past or existing targets.” It called the Forbidden Stories report “full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories.”

The source of the leak — and how it was authenticated – was not disclosed. While a phone number’s presence in the data does not mean an attempt was made to hack a device, the consortium said it believed the data indicated potential targets of NSO’s government clients.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it opened an investigation into a raft of potential charges, including violation of privacy, illegal use of data and illegally selling spyware.

As is common under French law, the investigation doesn’t name a suspected perpetrator but is aimed at determining who might eventually be sent to trial. It was prompted by a legal complaint by two journalists and French investigative website Mediapart.

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    Mute Mick Tobin
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    Oct 18th 2021, 6:59 PM

    The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was Sean Connery’s final film role, and it’s worth watching by mere virtue of having him in it in his last outing. The other reason is that it’s an Alan Moore story, and even though Moore disowned it as he disowned all Hollywood productions of his work after having signed away his rights as a young writer, a mistake countless others in other arts made too, his stories even if flawed reproductions of the original graphic novels are usually still worth it (other examples being V for Vendetta and Watchmen).

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    Mute Bert Carolan
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    Oct 18th 2021, 7:25 PM

    @Mick Tobin: I watched this a few years back, wouldn’t want to see it again. Long before the end I had lost interest. I seem to remember reading that Connery stopped making movies as a result of this film.

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    Mute Mick Tobin
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    Oct 18th 2021, 7:35 PM

    @Bert Carolan: Yes, here it is: https://screenrant.com/sean-connery-league-extraordinary-gentlemen-hated-why/ – but much of that had to do with delays concerning the weather, and over-sensitivity on the director’s part about how realistic some of the props were.

    If that’s what caused Connery to withdraw from acting, so be it, but it seems to me it had more to do with the circumstances of the production than with the eventual result, but allegedly Sir Sean did go into the editing room to help edit the final cut as he wasn’t satisfied.

    He said the director should’ve been arrested for insanity, but still, that doesn’t make it a film not worth watching. I enjoyed it sufficiently to watch it till the end, but if you couldn’t, well fair enough.

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    Mute Matthew Doyle
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    Oct 18th 2021, 7:45 PM

    There should be a pour bleach in me eye’s section because film and TV at the moment is terrible

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    Mute Gordon Larney
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    Oct 18th 2021, 7:59 PM

    @Matthew Doyle: in your opinion…

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    Mute Philip Mckenna
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    Oct 18th 2021, 10:42 PM

    @Matthew Doyle: I agree, full of ghastly horrendous remakes and superhero movies, shocking time for films

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    Mute Brian Dunne
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    Oct 18th 2021, 8:04 PM

    What a transformation Matthew McConaughey made to his career. Was a run of the mill rom com guy and became an acting giant! Similar to Tom Hanks after his more goofy roles in the 80s.

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    Mute bob hope
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    Oct 18th 2021, 10:18 PM

    Deadpool!

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