Pegasus Project Exposes Global Surveillance of 50,000 Targets by NSO Group Clients

The Pegasus Project, a groundbreaking collaborative investigation by more than 80 journalists from 17 media organizations across 10 countries coordinated by Paris-based Forbidden Stories with technical support from Amnesty International, reveals that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware has been used to facilitate massive human rights violations worldwide. The investigation centers on a leaked list of over 50,000 phone numbers belonging to individuals identified as “people of interest” by NSO Group clients, including heads of state, activists, journalists, and their family members.

The leaked data identifies potential NSO clients in 11 countries: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Togo, and the United Arab Emirates. Forensic analysis by Amnesty International’s Security Lab, peer-reviewed by Citizen Lab, confirms Pegasus infection or attempted infection in 85% of examined devices (37 total). At least 180 journalists were selected as targets across countries including India, Mexico, Hungary, Morocco, and France.

Among the most significant revelations: Jamal Khashoggi’s family members and close associates were targeted before and after his 2018 murder, with his fiancée Hatice Cengiz’s phone successfully breached just four days after his assassination. Media partners including The Guardian, Washington Post, Le Monde, and Süddeutsche Zeitung publish coordinated exposés demonstrating how governments purchased technology marketed for counterterrorism but deployed it against political opposition, journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders. The Pegasus Project represents the most comprehensive documentation of commercial spyware abuse to date, fundamentally exposing the surveillance-for-hire industry’s role in enabling authoritarian control globally.