What happened in Hungary since the Pegasus spyware revelations

The Hungarian broker company involved in the purchase of the spyware that hacked phones launched a series of lawsuits against us and other media outlets, but lost all of them. In the meantime, however, real investigation into the circumstances of the surveillance has been very slow due to the authorities’ resistance. Direkt36 summarizes the most important developments two years after the scandal broke.

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The inside story of how Pegasus was brought to Hungary

Direkt36 has revealed that the cyber weapon was purchased by the Hungarian state through a broker company that later became partly owned by Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér’s close confidant, László Tasnádi, who once worked for the Communist state security apparatus. The company also involved a businessman who had previous ties to the current left-wing opposition. Pegasus was considered such an expensive and top-class weapon by the intelligence agencies that it was kept secret even in internal circles.

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The attorney became a Pegasus target when one of Hungary’s most notorious murder cases took a turn

Former Hungarian ambassador to China was targeted with Pegasus – shortly before becoming senior advisor to Orbán

A Pegasus felemelkedése – a kémszoftver eddig ismert magyar célpontjai

Another Pegasus target with political ties: a lawyer who oversees elections and worked for opposition party Jobbik

Orbánék leszerződtették a Pegasus kémszoftver gyártójának korábbi lobbistáját

Így ellenőrizheted, megfigyelték-e az iPhone-odat a Pegasus kémszoftverrel

Hungarian president’s closest bodyguards targeted with Pegasus spyware

Targeting the president’s bodyguards may have been related to the internal struggle within the security agencies, which intensified after the Counter Terrorism Center wanted to find out the details of President János Áder’s schedules, a Direkt36 investigation has found. Even the smallest details of Áder’s activity could be monitored through the surveillance of his bodyguards with Pegasus.

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A biztonsági szervek rászálltak a pilótára, aki a fideszes elit repülőútjait figyelte. Aztán feltűnt a Pegasus-célpontok között is

A Gyurcsány-kormány két nemzetbiztonsági vezetőjét is célba vették a Pegasusszal

Így foszlott szét a kormányzati ködösítés a Pegasus-ügyben

Három és fél hónapon át próbálta az Orbán-kormány előbb letagadni, majd agyonhallgatni, hogy az államnak köze lenne a Pegasus-ügyhöz. Ez egészen addig működött is, amíg november 4-én délután Kósa Lajos az RTL Klubnak beismerte, hogy Magyarország megvásárolta és használja is az izraeli NSO Group Pegasus nevű kémszoftverét. Összefoglaljuk, hogy jutott a kormányzat a tagadástól a beismerésig.

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Hungarian intel officer involved in spyware operations appears on Pegasus list

In Israel, Pegasus was developed to counter terrorism. In Hungary, a top counter-terrorism official became its target

He has been uncovering the lavish lifestyle of Viktor Orbán’s circles. This summer, he was surveilled with Pegasus spyware

Anti-Orbán news site’s publisher came under surveillance when his contract with an opposition party was revealed

Páva’s smartphone was hacked with the cyberweapon developed by Israeli company NSO on March 16, the very day when it became public information that opposition party Democratic Coalition signed a contract with his company for social media consulting.

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Hungarian opposition publisher was surveilled with Pegasus in spring 2021

Previous reporting showed that Pegasus was used against Hungarian targets in 2018 and 2019. Now there is evidence that Zoltán Páva, a former politician who is a news publisher now, was under surveillance in March and May this year.

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Hungarian journalist reporting on corruption surveilled with Pegasus for months

During her surveillance, Brigitta Csikász, one of Hungary’s most experienced crime reporters, wrote about the misuse of EU funds among other topics. Csikász’s investigations revealed that, despite the alarms of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Hungarian authorities lacked either the will or the ability to prosecute the suspicious spending of EU money.

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Opposition mayor has long suspected to be surveilled. Now we know that he has been targeted with Pegasus

State Secretary who disagreed with a Hungarian cabinet member over Paks nuclear power plant targeted by Pegasus spyware

Attila Aszódi became a target shortly before his dismissal in 2019 at a time when he had several conflicts with the Hungarian cabinet member supervising Paks 2. The State Secretary disagreed with the measures that would have benefitted the Russian party building the new nuclear power plant and would have changed the original timetable of the project.

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