[ConcernedCitizen]

Cytrox - Predator exploit

We confirmed the hacking of the devices of two individuals with Cytrox’s Predator spyware: Ayman Nour, a member of the Egyptian political opposition living in exile in Turkey, and an Egyptian exiled journalist who hosts a popular news program and wishes to remain anonymous.

Ayman Nour is the president of the Egyptian political opposition group Union of the Egyptian National Forces. Nour is also a former Egyptian presidential candidate and founder and chairperson of the Ghad al-Thawra party.

In 2005, Nour ran against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. After the election, Nour was convicted of “forging signatures on petitions” filed to create his political party—a charge which was widely considered to be “politically inspired”—and imprisoned for more than four years. Nour was finally released from prison in 2009 on health grounds and after international pressure.

Nour was a candidate of the Ghad Al-Thawra party in the 2012 Egyptian presidential elections. He was excluded from the elections along with a number of other opposition candidates. In 2013, after opposing President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s military coup, Nour fled Egypt for Lebanon. In 2015, the Egyptian embassy in Lebanon declined to renew his passport and Nour departed Lebanon for Turkey, where he has resided since 2015. He remains a vocal critic of Sisi’s regime, describing his government as an “oppressive military regime.” He has also accused Sisi’s government of “extreme human rights violations” and of turning the country into a “fully autocratic state.”

The second target whose phone we confirmed was hacked with Cytrox’s Predator spyware is an Egyptian exiled journalist and an outspoken critic of the Sisi regime. This target has chosen to remain anonymous.

Read the entire Citizenlab report here.