12 Journalists and Human Rights Defender's Apple Devices from Armenia Compromised by Spyware

At least 12 journalists and human rights defenders from Armenia have had their Apple mobile devices compromised by the Pegasus spyware. This information comes from an investigation conducted by the international non-profit organization Access Now, the Armenian CyberHUB-AM IT group, the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab research center, the security laboratory of Amnesty International, and independent mobile phone security researcher Ruben Muradyan.

The spyware was utilized during the period from November 2020 to December 2022. According to Meduza, this marks the first documented evidence of the use of Pegasus spyware in the context of the international war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The victims of the surveillance have publicly disclosed their names. Among them are:

• Anna Naghdalyan – Former Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.
• Karlén Aslanyan – Journalist for the Armenian service of Radio Liberty.
• Astghik Bedeyan – Journalist for the Armenian service of Radio Liberty.
• Ruben Melikyan – Lawyer and human rights defender at the «Path of Law» NGO; former human rights defender in Nagorno-Karabakh.
• Varuzhan Geghamyan – Political scientist specializing in Turkish studies, Professor at Yerevan State University.
• Samvel Farmanyan – Co-founder of ArmNews television channel.
• Kristine Grigoryan – Former Human Rights Defender of Armenia, who resigned in early 2023.

Five others, whose Apple devices were also infected with Pegasus, wished to remain anonymous for personal and professional reasons. Among them are two journalists, an activist, a representative of Armenia's civil society, and a UN representative who did not receive employer consent to speak publicly.

Furthermore, many other representatives of Armenia's civil society, such as Vitali Grigoryan, a journalist from Public Television, have received notifications from Apple that their devices may be infected with spyware. However, the authors of the investigation have not fully confirmed this due to a lack of access to data from their devices.