Location: Jordan
Date: April 7, 2022

Digital rights researchers have found  that the mobile phones of four Jordanian human rights activists, including journalist Suhair Jaradat and an anonymous female reporter, were hacked for over two years, using Pegasus spyware. The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) condemns the cyber attacks on the journalists and calls on the Jordanian authorities to take immediate action against the perpetrators. 

The findings of Front Line Defenders and Citizen Lab, reported  on April 5, indicate that some of the hacking attempts were carried out by the Jordanian government. This is the latest in a string of reports linking use of Israeli company NSO’s Pegasus spyware with the targeting of journalists by authoritarian governments.  

Jordanian officials have denied the allegations whileNSO gave no comments on the findings but maintained that the  monitoring of political activists by any client amounted to "severe misuse" of its product. Both the company and the Israeli government have faced repeated criticism over their surveillance and espionage practices but have yet to take any tangible steps to address these complaints 

The report named columnist and human rights activist Suhair Jaradat, anti-corruption activist Ahmed  Al-Nuaimat, human rights lawyer Malik Abu Orabi and another woman journalist who wished to remain anonymous given safety concerns, as targets of Pegasus spyware. 

At least two of them were targeted by hackers  "mainly focused on Jordan". The report found that two of the alleged operators targeting the journalists were  "likely to be Jordanian government devices". The attacks recorded were made between August and December 2021. 

Jordan's National Center for Cyber Security "categorically" denied the report's findings. He added, "These allegations are baseless, and Jordan has not cooperated with any agents to spy on citizens' phones or censor their calls,." said.

Front Line Defenders is an Ireland-based non-profit human rights organization which assists at-risk rights activists while the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab researches information technology, security and human rights. The two organizations have previously investigated NSO and earlier this year the former found Pegasus spyware was also used to target another Jordanian activist Hala Ahed Deeb. 

Their recent findings noted that the spyware was used on an iPhone, indicating that NSO has continued to target Apple's operating system even after past surveillance reports prompted the global tech giant to pursue a lawsuit against the Israeli company. 

Pegasus is a spyware suite developed and distributed by the Israel-based company, NSO Group, which targets individual cell phones. Operators of the software can target any phone through a software-generated exploit link, after which Pegasus installs itself on the device without the knowledge of the owner. It allows operators to extract messages, photos, and emails, record calls, and secretly activate microphones and cameras.

NSO was blacklisted by the US government last year amid allegations that its spyware was being used by repressive governments to hack innocent people, including activists, politicians and journalists.

Previously, inAugust 2021, an attempt was made to hack into the phone of Irina Pankratova, a journalist associated with the publication, The Bell. Irina’s employer organization confirmed the news on their Telegram channel stating that the attackers had tried to access the phone and text communication records of the journalist but remained unsuccessful in doing so. The attacker is yet to be identified. 

Similar reports of dozens of journalists and activists in El Salvador being targeted by Pegasus were published by Citizen Lab and digital rights group Access Now In January 2022. Their findings also pointed to government involvement in surveillance and cyber attacks, with most of those targeted linked to El Faro - a news outlet which reported on alleged secret conversations between the government and notorious gangs.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the targeting of Suhair Jaradat and the use of Pegasus to spy on women journalists. The Israeli spyware has proven to be an extremely dangerous tool evidently being used by authoritarian regimes to silence political workers, rights defenders and the free press. We call on NSO, Israel and Jordan to immediately investigate reports of such attacks and take swift measures to ensure protection of journalists.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism is a global organization of support for women journalists. The CFWIJ pioneered mentorship for mid-career women journalists across several countries around the world and is the first organization to focus on the status of free press for women journalists. We thoroughly document cases of any form of abuse against women in any part of the globe. Our system of individuals and organizations brings together the experience and mentorship necessary to help female career journalists navigate the industry. Our goal is to help develop a strong mechanism where women journalists can work safely and thrive.

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