Quote:French lawmakers have launched an investigation into Israeli offensive cybersecurity company NSO Group after they learned French President Emmanuel Macron topped a list of 14 heads of states potentially targeted by the company’s spyware.
 
Amnesty International said Tuesday the French leader was a potential spyware target, along with presidents Imran Khan of Pakistan, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Barham Salih of Iraq. Heads of state, including the prime ministers and the king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, were also high-profile potential targets of NSO’s software known as Pegasus.
 
“The unprecedented revelation … should send a chill down the spine of world leaders,” wrote Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, in a statement.
 
The world leaders were potential targets, according to a list of 50,000 phone numbers believed linked to the NSO Group and leaked to Amnesty International and the Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories. The extensive list is believed to date back to 2016 and includes people of interest by clients of NSO.
 
On Sunday, a consortium of 17 media partners published a bombshell report shedding light onto what they believe is a systemic and widespread use of the Pegasus spyware by sometimes repressive regimes against human rights activists, political dissidents, journalists and religious and world leaders.