Published by
Al-Araby
Al-Araby
Hala al-Ahed was alarmed when she got a message from Apple. The telecom giant was notifying her that she may have been hacked using the Pegasus software, the Israeli spyware that gives its user complete access to a phone and its contents. Worried, al-Ahed sent in her phone to be tested by Frontline Defenders, an NGO that specialises in protecting activists. Digital forensics confirmed her fears: An unspecified government had paid upwards of a million dollars to spy on her using Pegasus. Al-Ahed’s first concern, as human rights lawyer in the Jordanian National Forum for Defending Freedom, was h…