Security researchers, together with from Google, imagine the Egyptian authorities is behind the assaults.
An opposition Egyptian presidential candidate was targeted with spyware various instances in latest months, with Egyptian authorities possible behind the hacking makes an attempt, safety researchers say.
Ahmed Altantawy mentioned on Saturday he contacted web watchdog Citizen Lab after receiving suspicious messages on his smartphone.
The former Egyptian lawmaker mentioned he suspected they have been malicious and “inextricably linked to my political candidacy and my opposition role in the country against the Sisi regime”, referring to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
The hacking makes an attempt sought “not only to surveil but perhaps also to find compromising material that could be used to discredit or defame me”, he added.
Researchers on the University of Toronto-based Citizen Lab and Google’s Threat Analysis Group discovered the malware towards Altantawy final week, which prompted Apple to implement safety updates on Thursday to patch the related vulnerabilities.
Citizen Lab mentioned in a weblog submit that makes an attempt starting in August concerned configuring Altantawy’s telephone’s connection to the Vodafone Egypt cell community to routinely infect it with Predator spyware if he visited web sites not utilizing the safe HTTPS protocol.
The watchdog mentioned the makes an attempt in all probability failed as a result of Altantawy had his telephone in “lockdown mode”, a suggestion Apple makes for customers at excessive threat, together with activists, journalists, and political dissidents in international locations like Egypt.
Prior to that, makes an attempt have been additionally made starting in May to hack Altantawy’s telephone with Predator by way of hyperlinks in textual content and WhatsApp messages that he must click on on to develop into contaminated.
Once a telephone is contaminated, the Predator spyware turns a smartphone right into a distant eavesdropping gadget, permitting the attacker to siphon off knowledge.
Researchers at Citizen Lab are sure the Egyptian authorities is behind the assaults on condition that Egypt is a recognized buyer of Predator’s maker, Cytrox, and the spyware was delivered by way of community injection from Egyptian soil.
“It’s scary the fact that the government can essentially select anyone on Vodafone Egypt’s network and perhaps other networks for infections and they just flip a switch,” mentioned Bill Marczak of Citizen Lab.
“The most likely scenario here is that, yes, there is this cooperation from Vodafone,” he added.
In 2021, Citizen Lab had beforehand decided that Altantawy was hacked by Predator.
The presidential candidate, additionally a former journalist, introduced in March his bid to problem el-Sisi in Egypt’s upcoming 2024 elections.
El-Sisi’s authorities has, since he got here to energy in 2014, been accused of a brutal crackdown towards opposition politicians, human rights activists, and dissidents, together with via ways comparable to pressured disappearances, torture, and long-term detentions with out trial, in line with activists.
Altantawy, his members of the family, and his supporters complained about being harassed, which prompted him to ask Citizen Lab researchers to analyse his telephone for potential hacking makes an attempt.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/24/leading-egyptian-opposition-presidential-candidate-targeted-by-spyware?traffic_source=rss