A new report by Amnesty International accuses Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group of providing the Moroccan government with cyber espionage tools that were used to target a freedom of expression activist and a human rights lawyer in the country. The targets both received text messages containing malicious links that would respond to user interaction by installing spyware on the targeted device.
Claudio Guarnieri of Amnesty stated that Morocco has been targeting certain citizens with surveillance technology since at least 2012. He believes that the latest attacks “are renewed evidence of the use of spyware to silence human rights defenders. And they’re most likely not isolated incidents.”
NSO Group said that it is investigating the matter and that if they find evidence of “actual or potential adverse impacts on human rights, we are proactive and quick to take the appropriate action to address them,” which “may include suspending or immediately terminating a customer’s use of the product, as we have done in the past.” NSO Group is a highly controversial company that has been accused of helping various governments, including those of Mexico, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, target citizens via cyber espionage campaigns. Last week, Google warned that hundreds of millions of Android devices are vulnerable to an attack developed by NSO Group.
Read more: Moroccan Activist Says NSO’s Elite Spy Tools Hacked His iPhone
