Pegasus Spyware Targeted iPhones of Journalists and Activists in Jordan

Access Now and the Citizen Lab found that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was used to target ~35 Jordanian journalists, activists and lawyers from at least 2019 through September 2023; nine were publicly identified as targeted and six devices were confirmed compromised. The campaign used zero-click and one-click iOS exploits (e.g., FORCEDENTRY, FINDMYPWN, PWNYOURHOME, BLASTPASS) and social-engineered links via WhatsApp/SMS, with some victims reinfected multiple times and Lockdown Mode cited as a mitigation.