Foreign media exposed the ＂Pegasus＂ monitoring scandal. Many countries’ political figures suspected that mobile phones were monitored for a long time.

　　BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) According to foreign media reports, on the 18th of this month, 17 international media jointly disclosed a monitoring scandal that shocked the whole world: a monitoring software named "Pegasus" was secretly installed on the mobile phones held by important people in the political and business media in many countries for a long time, and all the communications of the monitored people faced a very high risk of leakage.

　　The media jointly disclosed that a total of 180 journalists, 600 politicians, 85 human rights activists and 65 business leaders were included in the monitoring list of Pegasus software. The total number of monitored mobile phone numbers may be as high as more than 50 thousand. These unsuspecting eavesdroppers include French President Macron, South African President Ramaphosa, Pakistani Prime Minister imran khan and other current state leaders, as well as the heads of international organizations such as World Health Organization Director-General Tan Desai and European Council President Charles Michel.

　　France’s Le Monde reported that Moroccan intelligence agencies installed "Pegasus" in the mobile phones of Macron and dozens of French dignitaries, illegally monitoring the communication content. The French Presidential Palace responded that Macron had ordered the authorities to investigate and report the results in time. If the situation is true, "the problem will be very serious". However, the Moroccan side denied the monitoring allegations, calling them "unfounded false accusations".

　　According to the Associated Press, Indian opposition parties accused Indian Prime Minister Modi of using "Pegasus" to monitor political opponents, journalists and social activists on the 20th. According to the exposed surveillance list, the names of Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, at least 40 journalists and a scholar who once criticized Modi are impressively listed. Asvany Vaishno, India’s Minister of Information Technology, dismissed the allegations, saying that such "extremely sensational exaggerated news" was an attempt to "slander India".

　　It is reported that "Pegasus" software was developed by an Israeli company named "NSO Group" to collect short messages, photos, contact information and monitor calls on smartphones. According to the British "Guardian", "Pegasus" may be the most powerful spyware at present, which has the ability to obtain the current and historical location of users, and even know the identity of people who meet users.

　　The company’s website statement shows that "Pegasus" is mainly used by intelligence departments to monitor criminals and terrorists, and can provide the location of victims in rescue operations. Shalev Hulio, the company’s co-founder and CEO, firmly denied that Pegasus software was used to monitor citizens and members of society, and politicians such as Macron were not monitored.

　　According to Israeli media reports, the Israeli government is setting up a special working group to deal with the follow-up impact of the "Pegasus" monitoring scandal. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Ganz said on the 20th that Israel is investigating Pegasus and its R&D company. He stressed: "We only export network products to other governments and only apply them to legitimate purposes."