The NGOs claim to have obtained a huge amount of data concerning a company called NSO Group, that sells its Pegasus malware to governments all over the world.
Pegasus infects both Android and iPhone devices enabling spooks to extract data and take them over, listening in to calls, as well as recording sound and video.
The data included 50,000 phone numbers, many belonging to journalists and political activists, allegedly infected by Pegasus.
Although it is old news that Apple phones are hackable, the report triggered a sharp reduction in the Apple share value yesterday (July 19), confirming the view that share dealers have no memory.
The Pegasus story was treated so seriously by the spooks that they rushed out a spoiler, a tired old item about Chinese cyber espionage.
In a follow up in today's Guardian Edward Snowden, the libertarian who revealed
Me (Jonathan Brind), looking rather miserable behind today's Guardian containing stories that pose more questions than they answer.
Oddly, when the East German government was doing things like this, everyone could see that it was an appalling attack on liberty, freedom and the right to privacy. Not today, though.
Buried deep in the Guardian articles, is the amazing claim that in Mexico the NSO Group has to compete against several local malware suppliers. If they are doing it in Mexico they may well be doing it in Majorca and Milton Keynes.
NSO Group issued a statement saying it didn't recognise the data. The malware specialist maintained it only dealt with Governments who used its systems to target criminals and terrorists.
Click to see more about Edward Snowden.
Posted by Jonathan Brind.