Polish opposition duo hacked with NSO spyware, digital researchers say | AP News - Dec. 20, 2021 |

The aggressive cellphone break-ins of a high-profile lawyer representing top Polish opposition figures came in the final weeks of pivotal 2019 parliamentary elections. Two years later, a prosecutor challenging attempts by the populist right-wing government to purge the judiciary had her smartphone hacked.

In both instances, the invader was military-grade spyware from NSO Group, the Israeli hack-for-hire firm that the US government recently blacklisted, say digital sleuths of the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab internet watchdog.

A Polish state security spokesman, Stanislaw Zaryn, would neither confirm nor deny whether the government ordered the hacks or is an NSO customer.

Lawyer Roman Giertych and prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek join a list of government critics worldwide whose phones have been hacked using the company's Pegasus product.

In 2019, the independent Polish broadcaster TVN found evidence that a government anti-corruption agency had spent over $ 8 million on spyware for phones. The agency denied the report, but Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was more ambiguous, saying that everything "will be clarified in due course".

In the last four months of 2019, Giertych was hacked at least 18 times, according to Citizen Lab. At that time, he represented former Prime Minister Donald Tusk of the Civic Platform, currently the head of the largest opposition party, and former Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, now a Member of the European Parliament.

Europe's PegasusGate -- Countering Spyware Abuse | July 2022 |

'Sapere aude'