- The President of the Catalan Parlament, Roger Torrent, was in 2019 the starting point of the Pegasus spy program developed by the Israeli company NSO, which can only be purchased by governments. Torrent has declared that he perceived "weird things" and has accused the Spanish Government of having committed the attack on this programme. In addition, it has been known that Anna Gabriel's mobile phone at the Cup has also been monitored by the police.
The news has been disseminated by the media The Guardian and El País, among others. The Canadian cybersecurity institute Citizen Lab has investigated for the WhatsApp social network an indiscriminate interference against 130 representatives of "civil society" in Canada and has detected the attack on Roger Torrent, which has been stopped.
According to the information published by these two media, the Torrent mobile phone has been the starting point of the Pegasus spy program developed by the Israeli company NSO in 2019 and that only states and their armed forces can buy this program to attack "crime and terrorism".
A WhatsApp "security failure", a slot for the Torrent mobile
According to the media release, a WhatsApp security failure allowed the NSO spy program to intervene between April and May in 1,400 travelers worldwide. The gap to carry out this attack was a lost WhatsApp video call that didn't ask to respond to attack the receiver's mobile. These interventions have been analyzed by the cybersecurity group Citizen Lab, located at the University of Toronto, and among them is the Torrent issue. According to the document certified by Citizen Lab, obtained by The Guardian and El País, "there is multiple evidence that Torrent was monitored".
What this spy program can do to you
The Pegasus program allows you to listen to mobile conversations that have been attacked, read messages, access the hard drive, make screenshots, view browsing history and activate the camera and microphone with a distance control, allowing you to hear the ambient sound of the room. According to these Canadian experts, this program also facilitates access to encrypted messages and calls. Researchers have stated that they cannot identify who ordered the attack, but that the NSO, which created the Pegasus program, "sells its products only to governments." The NSO website confirms the following.
Torrent holds the Spanish State accountable
The words of Torrent, The Guardian and El País are as follows: -I felt weird things. WhatsApp messages and conversation histories were erased. The people around me didn't have anything like that. Torrent has accused the Spanish State of having infected its mobile with the Pegasus Civil Guard program.
Also the phone of Anna Gabriel
Olivier Peter, Anna Gabriel's lawyer, warned the newspaper 'was born Digital' that the former Cup deputy was also the victim of the Pegasus spying system. Gabriel travelled to Switzerland in 2018, after not testifying to the Supreme Court. The independence leader was accused of "rebellion, malversation and sedition." According to his lawyer, Gabriel received a statement in the WhatsApp instant messaging app in which he assured that "he could be spied on his mobile."