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The Moroccan intelligence agency, DGST, allegedly employed not merely the Pegasus spyware, but an entire panopticon of surveillance to monitor journalists and human rights defenders. Amnesty International asserts that this espionage encompassed ambient room eavesdropping, concealed cameras, geolocation tracking, and direct physical intrusion into personal devices.
A pivotal source for this revelation was a former DGST operative operating under the pseudonym Safir. According to his testimony, agency personnel deliberately infected computers within internet cafes and surreptitiously installed spyware onto smartphones. Certain retail outlets purportedly sold superficially pristine, yet already compromised, cellular devices to targeted individuals.
The Deployment of Pegasus and Remote Espionage
For remote surveillance, the agency leveraged Pegasus, developed by the NSO Group. Amnesty inextricably links this system to the DGST. Moreover, they posit its deployment against journalists and activists from at least 2017 through 2021. The insidious infections were executed via malicious hyperlinks, zero-click exploits, and the manipulation of network traffic. Additionally, a strikingly similar attack was previously discovered on the mobile device of journalist Omar Radi.
Amnesty successfully correlated 103 Moroccan phone numbers, integrated into the Pegasus targeting list between September and December 2017, to specific individuals. The proprietors of these numbers included 34 human rights advocates, 22 journalists and media personnel, alongside prominent lawyers, politicians, diplomats, and esteemed members of the academic community.
A Historical Precedent of Cyber Intrusion
According to the findings, Morocco procured surveillance technology from entities far beyond the NSO Group. Previously, state apparatuses utilized intrusive solutions engineered by Hacking Team, FinFisher, and various other purveyors. The monumental Hacking Team data breach in 2015 had already laid bare the corporation’s deep-rooted connections with Moroccan clientele.
Moroccan authorities have historically and vehemently denied the deployment of spyware against their citizenry. Prior to the publication of their new investigation, Amnesty transmitted these comprehensive findings to the government, yet they were met with resounding silence.
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