Response to Inquiry to NSS Indicates that the Service Has Not Acquired the Pegasus Program: Gegham Manukyan

Armenian MP Gegham Manukyan writes on his Facebook page: “In response to my inquiry addressed to the NSS, I have been informed that the service has not acquired the Pegasus program. However, it is surprising that the government body responsible for the country's security is not concerned that there have been recorded instances of wiretapping Armenian figures using this program.”

He reminded that yesterday a list of countries utilizing programs for infecting and spying on people's phones was published, and Armenia was also included in that list.

Information security expert Samvel Martirosyan revealed that an investigation by Meta-Facebook and Citizen Lab found that political figures and people associated with the media were among the targets. The Cytrox spy software was used. “This is an organization that provides surveillance software to law enforcement agencies, meaning it sells viruses to states for intelligence purposes—to capture and monitor criminals and terrorists. Simply put, their investigation has gone in the direction of establishing that these programs are used not so much in the way specified but often against journalists and political figures,” said Martirosyan.

He recalled that weeks ago, it became known that Armenia had acquired the Pegasus surveillance program, which conducts illegal wiretapping on Apple devices. Martirosyan noted that this incident could be regarded as a continuation of the Pegasus case. “This program is Macedonian and also has Israeli connections,” said Martirosyan.

When asked if there have been registered cases of wiretapping and spying in Armenia before, Martirosyan replied, “The Pegasus case is one. This is simply the first instance where Armenia is mentioned as a potential buyer of this program. And when it came to the infections caused by this program, it was not obvious that it could be domestic because the infection could have come from Azerbaijan and Turkey.”