The UK government, including the Prime Minister's Office, and politicians in Catalonia were targeted with Pegasus spyware, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab revealed in two reports published on April 18. NSO-made Pegasus spyware has been under scrutiny since July last year when an international consortium of media organisations revealed that political leaders, journalists, human rights activists, businessmen, military officials, intelligence agency officials, and several others from various countries across the world were targeted for surveillance using Pegasus. The latest reports by Citizen Lab add to this growing list of suspected targets. In India, the Supreme Court has constituted an expert committee to investigate the usage of Pegasus by the government against its own citizens. Who was targeted with Pegasus in the UK? In 2020 and 2021, Citizen Lab observed and notified the UK government of the suspected use of Pegasus spyware against the following entities: The Prime Minister’s Office at 10 Downing Street The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which is now the Foreign Commonwealth and Development office – FCDO "The suspected infections relating to the FCO were associated with Pegasus operators that we link to the UAE, India, Cyprus, and Jordan. The suspected infection at the UK Prime Minister’s Office was associated with a Pegasus operator we link to the UAE," Citizen Lab said. However, it is not necessary that FCO was targeted on UK soil. Because the office has personnel in many countries, the suspected FCO infections could have been related to FCO devices located abroad and using a foreign SIM…
