All posts by Panyi Szabolcs

Inside the opposition’s crushing defeat against Viktor Orbán

Szabó András, Panyi Szabolcs, Matyasovszki Fanni, Szőke Dániel, Pethő András 2022.05.17.

The chaos was even bigger inside the campaign than it looked from the outside. Direkt36 has investigated how the opposition, which led in the polls last fall, lost against Viktor Orbán’s governing party yet again.

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

Panyi Szabolcs, Matyasovszki Fanni 2022.03.31.

Ilona Patócs is not the first lawyer to be targeted, despite the fact that protecting client communication is an essential part of her job, Direkt36 has learned. Nor is she the only target to have been involved in a Portik case.

Putin’s hackers gained full access to Hungary’s foreign ministry networks, the Orbán government has been unable to stop them

Panyi Szabolcs 2022.03.29.

Russian state actors hacked into the Hungarian Foreign Ministry’s computer network compromising internal correspondence and even a secure network that transmits classified information. The recurring cyberattacks over the past decade were kept quiet by the Orbán government, and have not been successfully countered. With the help of internal documents and background interviews, Direkt36 exposes Russian cyber espionage against Hungary’s MFA.

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

Panyi Szabolcs, Matyasovszki Fanni 2022.03.22.

Cecília Szilas is not the first high-ranking Hungarian official who was targeted with the Pegasus spyware. Her phone was added to the list during her stint at a conflict-ridden company called Dunaferr, shortly before becoming the Prime Minister’s senior advisor on China.

Spies, business deals and criminals. How Orbán favors Russian interests instead of Western ones

Panyi Szabolcs, Szabó András 2022.03.01.

In the past 12 years, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has gotten into a situation many times, when they had to decide between the interests of Western allies, or Russia. Direkt36 has revealed many cases, where, in the end, the government favored Vladimir Putin and his circles. It occurred, for example, that they drove a Hungarian company out of business, just to be able to make space for a Russian firm.

Orbánék leszerződtették a Pegasus kémszoftver gyártójának korábbi lobbistáját

Panyi Szabolcs 2022.01.24.

Egy olyan washingtoni lobbistát szerződtetett 2021 végén a magyar kormány, aki egészen odáig az okostelefonok feltörésére alkalmas Pegasus kémszoftvert kifejlesztő izraeli cégnek dolgozott

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

Panyi Szabolcs, Matyasovszki Fanni 2021.12.23.

Kiket figyeltek meg a kémszoftverrel? Az én telefonom is rajta lehet a Pegasus? Hogyan működik a program, amelyikkel meg lehet találni a megfigyelés nyomait? Kérdések és válaszok a Direkt36-tól.

Hungarian president’s closest bodyguards targeted with Pegasus spyware

Panyi Szabolcs 2021.12.13.

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.

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

Panyi Szabolcs 2021.11.22.

A ma már pilótaként dolgozó egykori tévés műsorvezető, Pető György szerint azért kerülhetett ő a hatóságok látókörébe, mert információkkal segítette a befolyásos emberek magánrepülőzéséről beszámoló újságírókat.

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

Panyi Szabolcs 2021.11.12.

Nem egyértelmű, miért került a célkeresztbe 2019-ben Laborc Sándor egykori NBH-vezető és korábbi kollégája, Glemba Zoltán. Az egykori titkosszolgálati vezetők azt mondják, hogy kormányzati körökben máig tartanak attól, hogy számukra káros információk vannak a birtokukban.

Így foszlott szét a kormányzati ködösítés a Pegasus-ügyben

Panyi Szabolcs 2021.11.06.

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.

Hungarian intel officer involved in spyware operations appears on Pegasus list

Panyi Szabolcs 2021.10.29.

The telephone number of an intelligence officer at the Special Service for National Security (SSNS), which conducts secret surveillance and interceptions, also appears in the list of Pegasus spyware targets, a Direkt36 investigation has found.

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

Panyi Szabolcs 2021.10.22.

Former deputy head of Hungary’s Counter Terrorism Centre Zsolt Bodnár was selected for targeting with the Israeli spyware. Direkt36 found out that when this happened, Bodnár had a conflict with his boss, the Head of Counter Terrorism, who is also Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s former chief bodyguard.

Orbán’s government tried to hide sensitive information on €1.5B Chinese university project

Panyi Szabolcs 2021.09.24.

Although Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government published its plans for the taxpayer funded Fudan Hungary University, it censored all politically sensitive and explosive information from the documents.

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

Panyi Szabolcs, Pethő András 2021.09.21.

Photographer-journalist Dániel Németh has spent years investigating and documenting the luxury lifestyle of Hungary’s ruling elite, following them with his camera as they travelled around Europe. This time, however, someone was watching him too.

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

Panyi Szabolcs, Pethő András 2021.09.13.

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.

“A story like out of a spy movie,” personal reports by two surveilled Direkt36 journalists

Panyi Szabolcs, Szabó András 2021.08.03.

Two Hungarian journalists Szabolcs Panyi and András Szabó share their personal reports of how it felt to find out they were surveilled through their mobile phones for weeks and months.

Hungarian journalist reporting on corruption surveilled with Pegasus for months

Panyi Szabolcs, Pethő András 2021.08.02.

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.

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

Panyi Szabolcs 2021.07.24.

The mayor of Gödöllő was targeted at a time when he was in a serious conflict with the government. People close to him have also appeared in the leaked database of targets selected for Pegasus.

President of the Hungarian Bar Association and several other lawyers have been targeted by Pegasus

Panyi Szabolcs, Pethő András 2021.07.20.

Professional secrecy does not seem to protect lawyers from becoming targets of surveillance. Bánáti was targeted during a famous murder case, while another lawyer became the target at the time when he wanted to run against the Fidesz mayor of a small town during the last municipal elections.