Spyware is found on phone of prominent Russian journalist
The iPhone of a prominent Russian journalist whose news outlet has effectively been outlawed by President Vladimir Putin was infected with Pegasus spyware this year, researchers say, in the first known case of the powerful eavesdropping tool being used against a significant Russian target.
The spyware appears to have been installed while the phone’s owner, Galina Timchenko, owner of the news outlet Meduza, was in Germany for a meeting with other Russian journalists in February — raising questions about who hacked her phone while in a Western democracy.
Access Now, a nonprofit that defends digital rights, and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab say they confirmed the Pegasus infection after Timchenko received an alert this summer from Apple that spyware may have been planted on her phone.
