Polish senators question cyber experts in hacking inquiry

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish Senate commission opened an investigation into the use of powerful spyware against government critics by hearing testimony Monday from cybersecurity experts, who compared targeting of opposition figures under the right-wing government to methods used by the Kremlin against critics in Russia.

John Scott-Railton and Bill Marczak, senior researchers with the Citizen Lab, a research group based at the University of Toronto, told the seven-member committee they were able to confirm that data was stolen from the phone of a Polish senator, Krzysztof Brejza. That came on top of their findings in late December that Brejza and two others — a Polish lawyer and a prosecutor — were hacked aggressively with Pegasus, spyware produced by Israel's NSO Group.

The revelations have shocked many Poles because Pegasus is a tool meant to be used by governments to fight terrorists and other dangerous criminals. It gives its operators complete access to a mobile device, allowing them to extract passwords, photos, messages, contacts and browsing history and activate the microphone and camera for real-time eavesdropping.

Many view it as a human rights violation to use it against domestic opponents who criticize the government but pose no danger to society.

In Brejza's case, his phone was hacked multiple times in 2019, mostly when he was running the opposition’s parliamentary election campaign. Messages from his phone were doctored and used in a smear campaign against him in the heat of the race, which the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party narrowly won.

After evasions and denials by government officials, Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski acknowledged last week that Poland had acquired Pegasus, describing it as an important tool against criminals, but denying it was used against the...