"Pegasus" case. Cartoon of 24/04/2022 in CTXT
I suppose that you, devoted reader and regular listener and viewer of news, will be aware of the "Pegasus" thing.
Pegasus is the name of a piece of malware marketed by an Israeli company dedicated to the supply of spy gadgets and which usually ends up in the hands of governments who use it for their intimate shady dealings, which they then hide under the guise of state secrecy.
This is one of those cases that either blows up on different sides and splashes a lot of people or remains the same as always, four headlines and two political brawls and ends up buried by any other "sausage" case that we are dealing withnews"We are sold and buy it as urgent.
Origin
Be that as it may, this is the origin of the pod, in case you want to scratch it from the beginning.
It all stems from a study by Citizen Lab that you can read here. It was published on 18 April and involves researchers Elies Campo, John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, , Salvatore Solimano, Bahr Adbul Razzak, Siena Anstis, Gözde Böcü and Ron Deibert. It is titled "CatalanGate: Extensive Mercenary Spyware Operation against Catalans Using Pegasus and Candiru" (Candiru it's another one of those spying crap).
This paper focuses on the tracking of politicians' mobile phones in what is described as "one of the largest known cases of state spying in Europe" and discusses the malware in question: Pegasus, the software of Israel's NSO group.
From this work comes the article How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens (How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens) by Ronan Farrow, published in The New Yorker.
I recommend a leisurely reading of both texts in this order, both are interesting.
The first reactions to this type of information are the ones that interest me the most because, in addition to being more decisive than they appear at first glance, they can reveal interesting behaviours that are no less shameful for being known.
The first thing was silence. Then he went on to deny it without denying it, "In Spain there is no spying except under the protection of the law", and that all is very democratic. said Isabel Rodríguez.
Afterwards, there was talk of state secrets related to national security, which meant that certain specific questions, such as this one, could not be answered:
can the government guarantee that the CNI has not used the Pegasus programme?
Minister Isabel Rodríguez's answer at minute 23:50
Days later, Marlaska denied having had access to the Pegasus cyber-espionage system "at any time" and refused to comment on whether it was appropriate to open a commission of enquiry into this espionage, arguing that "it will have to be decided" by those with competence in the matter, not her department. Logically, these things are usually the responsibility of Parks and Gardens, not Interior.
In addition, a commission of enquiry organised by those under investigation, we already know how it usually starts: it drags on until it is stoned into boredom amid absurd debates, only to end in oblivion.
And if you want an example of this, Margarita Robles' plea will do. Death to intelligence. Paletism to power.
And since Margarita doesn't know The New Yorker, nor does she consider reading anything other than the PSOE's parish leaflet, perhaps someone should warn her that in media such as El País, which she might know, it is stated that the CNI bought the Pegasus system to spy abroad, a scenario that could fit in with its use in Catalonia XD.
and what is the position of the socialists? Well, the protocol, closing ranks and pulling the party script to throw flowers at Margarita Robles, praising "her sense of State and her defence of the law and common sense". The same thing they say about the Bourbons, that is, nothingness with bombastic words.
