- Military-grade
spyware technology was used to hack the smartphones of journalists, activists, and executives, The Washington Post reported. - Some of the affected journalists worked at outlets including CNN and The New York Times.
- The 37 numbers appeared on a list of 50,000 phone numbers in countries with a history of conducting
surveillance on their own citizens, according to the report.
Military-grade spyware technology software created by an Israeli company that sells it to governments for the purpose of countering
The investigation was conducted by the Post and 16 other media partners, according to the report.
Among those who were the subject of attempted smartphone
Two women connected to the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in October 2018 in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, were also on the list, according to the report.
The 37 numbers appeared on a list of 50,000 phone numbers originating mostly from countries with a history of conducting surveillance on their own citizens and those who have a relationship with the Israeli cyber-surveillance firm
The list was shared with media outlets by the Paris-based non-profit Forbidden Stories and by Amnesty
The list does not identify who placed the numbers on it. More than 15,000 of the phone numbers on the list were from Mexico while another sizable chunk of numbers came from the Middle Eastern countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen, according to the Post.