France once mulled acquiring Pegasus spyware: report

France briefly considered acquiring the controversial Israeli-made Pegasus spyware from mid-2019 during a period when Morocco was trying to use it to spy on French ministers, a journalistic investigation said Thursday. (AFP/File)

• An investigation by a consortium of media led by Forbidden Stories first alleged in 2021 that Morocco had deployed the malware
• France’s foreign intelligence agency told French investigators looking into the 2021 report that Morocco had been using NSO since at least 2017

PARIS: France briefly considered acquiring the controversial Israeli-made Pegasus spyware from mid-2019 during a period when Morocco was trying to use it to spy on French ministers, a journalistic investigation said Thursday.
An investigation by a consortium of media led by Forbidden Stories first alleged in 2021 that Morocco had deployed the malware, developed by Israeli firm NSO Group, to monitor prominent French political figures, including President Emmanuel Macron.
In a new series of articles published on Thursday, the consortium, including Le Monde newspaper, said email traces that Morocco used to spy on domestic political opponents had also been found on the phone of French ministers, including current Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu.
He had been targeted from July 2019 when he was minister for France’s local authorities, Forbidden Stories said.
France’s foreign intelligence agency told French investigators looking into the 2021 report that Morocco had been using NSO since at least 2017, it said.
NSO’s official reseller in France told the investigators that he had met French intelligence agencies, trying to sell the software for “60 to 80 million,” it added.
Le Monde reported that a representative of NSO met the branch of French domestic intelligence in charge of acquiring spyware a first time in June 2019, then again at least four times in following months.
In late 2020, Macron ruled against buying the Israeli software in order not to depend on foreign technology, according to information obtained by Le Monde.
A senior French intelligence official told the consortium they were never informed of the results of the analysis of Macron’s phone, which was handled directly by the Elysee Palace.
Morocco has firmly rejected all the accusations made against it, and demanded evidence.
The French prime minister’s team and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on the report, which come as premier Sebastien Lecornu visits Morocco.
A member of Macron’s team said the trip to Morocco aimed to build “trust” and address “common security challenges,” without further comments on Thursday’s report.
Pegasus can be installed surreptitiously onto a target’s smartphone and read messages, geolocate and secretly turn on the device’s camera and microphone — effectively turning the phone into a pocket spy.
Amnesty International named 11 governments that had acquired Pegasus in a 2021 report, and warned the spyware was being used to target journalists, lawyers and activists, enabling human rights violations on a “massive scale.”