A recent international investigation has unveiled unprecedented details regarding the intelligence cooperation between Morocco and Israel, particularly focusing on the use of the hacking software known as "Pegasus," developed by the Israeli company NSO Group. According to the findings published by the electronic newspaper Ra'i al-Youm, Morocco has established a comprehensive espionage system with the assistance of at least four Israeli companies, which was operational years prior to the signing of normalization agreements. This system has been implicated in surveillance activities targeting French and Spanish ministers.
The investigation elucidates that the "Pegasus" software has been sold to various entities across the globe and has frequently been utilized to spy on journalists, politicians, and human rights activists. The software allows its operators complete access to the targeted phone, enabling them to read files and messages even through encrypted applications, in addition to remotely activating the camera and microphone without detection.
Furthermore, the investigation indicates that Morocco has been a client of NSO Group since at least 2017, with its cooperation extending beyond the use of "Pegasus" to include the acquisition of other surveillance and espionage systems from Israeli companies. The investigation, which also involved the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, revealed that Morocco has been utilizing a system from Israeli company Circles since 2017, which exploits vulnerabilities in international communication protocols to locate phones and devices anywhere in the world.
Additionally, the investigation disclosed that negotiations between Morocco and Israeli company Verint commenced a year before Morocco obtained the "Pegasus" software. Internal documents from 2016, obtained by Haaretz, indicated that Morocco was referred to by the codename "Magazines" and included negotiations concerning deals worth $18 million for the purchase of the Skylock system for tracking mobile phones, alongside other intelligence platforms and an initial spyware program named EPI.
Moreover, the investigation revealed that Morocco has employed tools from the Israeli company Cellebrite, which enables the extraction of data from phones seized by security agencies. It highlighted that Privacy International reported in 2019 that Cellebrite had offered Morocco technologies to inspect smartphones of asylum seekers at the borders. One officer from Morocco's Cybersecurity Directorate stated that Moroccan authorities have also utilized Cellebrite's tools to monitor several human rights activists.
As reported by ar.mehrnews.com.
