The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
August 2, 2018

Amnesty International Blames "Hostile Government" for Malware Attack
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Amnesty International says hackers recently targeted one its staffers in
a sophisticated surveillance effort by a hostile government to spy on
the group's work. The staffer, who was working on a campaign calling for
the release of jailed women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia, received
an anonymous message in Arabic in the Whats App smartphone application.
The message was found to contain a link that would install the malware
program Pegasus-developed by an Israeli cyberintelligence firm-which
allows a third party to spy extensively on an encrypted phone's calls,
photos and messages. Amnesty warns the attack was likely part of a much
broader effort to spy on activists in several countries across Asia,
Africa and Europe.


.