Spyware made by Israeli surveillance dealer NSO Group has turned up in some contentious situations in recent years, reportedly landing on the iPhones of associates of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and on devices of lawyers trying to get justice for the parents of murder victims in Mexico.
Now researchers say it’s been found on devices in the middle of a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, who have spent decades fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. Phones belonging to a number of former Armenian politicians and journalists were deemed to have been hacked by NSO’s tools, according to a group of nonprofits, including Access Now, CyberHUB-AM, Citizen Lab and Amnesty International. One victim — Anna Naghdalyan, then a spokesperson for Armenia’s foreign affairs agency — saw her phone hacked 27 times over a 10-month period from October 2020 to July 2021.
NSO said that it couldn’t comment on the specific allegations because it hadn’t received any forensic report from the researchers. It continues to claim to have high ethical standards.
What remains unclear is who ordered the hacks. Technical evidence provided no clues as to whether Armenia or Azerbaijan were responsible, according to victims and researchers who spoke with Forbes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2023/05/30/the-wiretap-spyware-in-warfare/?sh=325ebe452405