Spanish politicians hacked, Spain has been NSO Group client for 5 years: Report

The mobile phones of a number of politicians in Spain, including the president of Catalonia's parliament, were recently hacked. The government of Spain has been an NSO customer since 2015, reports Motherboard on Tuesday.

NSO Group is an Israeli company that sells surveillance and hacking tools to governments around the world.

From more reporting Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai and Joseph Cox at Vice Motherboard, who say they confirmed the specifics with security researchers who investigated the attempted hack and a Facebook employee who has knowledge of the case,

A former NSO employee has told Motherboard that the Spanish government has been an NSO customer since 2015.

"We were actually very proud of them as a customer," the former employee said. "Finally a European state." Motherboard granted the source anonymity to protect them from retaliation from the company.

We cannot confirm whether these specific attempted hacks were directed by the Spanish government, though one of the politicians targeted believes the Spanish government is behind the attack.

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