Human rights activists, journalists and lawyers across the world have been targeted by authoritarian governments using hacking software sold by the Israeli surveillance company NSO Group, according to an investigation into a massive data leak, says the Guardian.
The leak contains a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers that, it is believed, have been identified as those of people of interest by clients of NSO since 2016.
An explainer about the hacking software can be found here.
The Guardian has collaborated with 16 other media outlets on the project, which is led by Paris-based nonprofit organisation Forbidden Stories, and will be revealing the identities of people whose number appeared on the list in the coming days.
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