The Royal Thai Police (RTP) have never used spyware in any security procedures to surveil people or violate their rights, Pol Col Kissana Phathanacharoen, the deputy spokesman for the national police, mentioned on Tuesday.
He had been responding to media reviews that at least 30 political activists in Thailand have been hacked using the Israeli surveillance spyware Pegasus.
Protection operations involving suspected criminal activities taking place overseas are always carried out in cooperation using the RTP’s international equivalent and other international security agencies, he stated.
“The Royal Thai Police have never used any kind of spyware to break anyone’s rights since suggested in those people news reports and rumours spread on social media. The RTP strictly follow laws and regulations, ” Pol Col Kissana said.
Pegasus goes to Israel-based NSO Group, which has been penalized from deals with US companies after an influx of revelations declaring its spyware has been used against tranquil dissidents and their associates around the world, based on media reports.
Now it is suspected of having been utilized in Thailand to target federal government opponents, following a revelation by some individual rights and internet monitoring groups.
Thai individual rights group iLaw, Southeast Asian internet watchdog Digital Achieve and Toronto-based Citizen Lab have earlier revealed findings from their probe performed after a mass notify from Apple in November informing a large number of iPhone users, including in Thailand, that they were targets of a spyware attack.
Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Modern Movement, said this individual was among the sufferers of the Pegasus spyware and adware attack. He stated he experienced as much as eight attempts to hack his iPhone using this particular spy ware.
Whenever he received an e-mail from Apple in November alerting him to the danger that he may be a focus on of state-sponsored attackers, he thought it had been just junk mail.
But later on when he spoke with fellow politics activists, they knowledgeable him they had every received similar caution emails, he mentioned.
“Someone told me Citizen Lab had already cautioned that many international iPhone users were goals of the spyware strike, most of whom had been activists, academics, media, politicians and other competitors of governments, ” Mr Piyabutr said.
As such, he asked iLaw to coordinate a good inspection by Citizen Lab of their iPhone and those associated with other activists within Thailand to look for traces of the Pegasus spyware assault . This exposed his phone had been attacked on eight occasions between December 3, 2020 and July 4, 2021.
“I heard about the Trojan horse Pegasus through my politician plus activist friends when visiting France, inch he said. “But I never thought this would one day occur to me. ”
(Screenshot from https://citizenlab.ca/2022/07/geckospy-pegasus-spyware-used-against-thailands-pro-democracy-movement/)