EXPLAINER: Target list of Israeli hack-for-hire firm widens

BOSTON (AP) — Human rights and press freedom activists are up in arms about a new report on NSO Group, the notorious Israeli hacker-for-hire company. The report, by a global media consortium, expands public knowledge of the target list used in NSO's military-grade spyware. According to the report, that now not only includes journalists, rights activists and opposition political figures, but also people close to them.

The groups have decried the virtual absence of regulation of commercial surveillance tools. If the allegations of widespread targeting by NSO's Pegasus malware are even partly true, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement, a "red line has been crossed again and again with total impunity.”

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NSO GROUP HAS LONG BEEN ACCUSED OF UNETHICAL HACKING. WHAT'S NEW?

The new investigation, based on leaked data of unspecified origin, builds significantly on previous efforts. Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International obtained the data and say that it people potential targeted for surveillance by NSO's clients.

Journalists from the consortium combed through a list of more than 50,000 cellphone numbers, identifying more than 1,000 individuals in 50 countries. They include 189 journalists, 85 human rights activists and several heads of state. Among the journalists were employees of The Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde and The Financial Times.

Amnesty was able to examine the smartphones of 67 individuals on the list, finding evidence of an attempted or successful Pegasus infection on 37. Its investigators found that the phone of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, was...