DeepL Translation: According to documents obtained by Disclose and Der Spiegel from European institutions, the Swedish company MSAB has provided the Moroccan police with a software called XRY capable of unlocking all types of smartphones to extract data from calls, contacts, location, but also messages sent and received by SMS, WhatsApp and Signal. As for Oxygen forensic, domiciled in the United States, it has delivered a data extraction and analysis system called "Detective". What makes it special? Bypassing screen locks on mobile devices in order to extract information stored in the cloud (Google, Microsoft or Apple) or secure applications on any phone or computer. The notable difference with Pegasus software is that both software require physical access to the mobile device to be hacked, and do not allow remote monitoring.
Bit of clickbait title, from the article it's not clear at all what the news is, Morocco already has Pegasus (from Israel) that works remotely, these new software are much less powerful and require physical access to the device, but once you already have physical access, it's game over.<p>Of course, even if the article make it sound like a scandal, exchange of anti-privacy software for catching human traffickers [1] is not announced in a worldwide press release, it would defeat its purpose<p>[1] from the article<p><i>Objective of this technology transfer financed from the budget of the EU's "border management program for the Maghreb region": to fight against irregular immigration and human trafficking at the gates of the EU.</i>
The primary distinction between Pegasus software and other software is that in order to hack a mobile device, the hacker must have direct, physical access to the device. Pegasus software does not provide remote surveillance.
I am reading in the airport after leaving Morocco. A couple of days ago I received a weird spam SMS message (coming from an iCloud account) that i’ve never seen before. I didn’t open the messages as I know about Pegasus and my senses started to tingle.<p>I guess it’s time to reset my phone.