Polish senator hacked with Pegasus spyware before national election

Polish Senator Krzysztof Brejza’s smartphone was hacked 33 times around the 2019 elections with Pegasus spyware from the NSO Group. That writes AP News, based on a study conducted with Citizen Lab.

Text messages were allegedly stolen in these attacks, AP News writes. Brejza is a member of the Civic Platform, Poland’s largest opposition party. The attacks took place from April 26 to October 23, 2019. It is not clear what evidence Citizen Lab, part of the University of Toronto, found for the attacks.

These stolen messages from Brejza were allegedly edited and shared with the state broadcaster, making it appear that Brejza had created groups that spread anti-government propaganda, the news agency writes. These fake messages were later shared by the state broadcaster. Those propaganda groups did not exist, according to the news agency.

In addition to Brejza, a prosecutor and a lawyer, both critics of the Polish government, have also been attacked with Pegasus spyware, according to Citizen Lab. Although there is no evidence, the three victims suspect the Polish government of the attack. For example, the NSO Group says it only trades with governments. This company does not want to say whether Poland is indeed a customer. The Polish government says never to use taps illegally, according to Politico, the government says not to use Pegasus either. The Polish Law and Justice party won the elections on October 13, 2019.