Amnesty International has alleged that one of its employees was spied with surveillance software of Israeli make as part of a deliberate attempt to keep a tab on the human rights group by a “government hostile to its work”.

Amnesty in its 20-page report released on Wednesday that on of its staff members was baited with the help of a suspicious WhatsApp message in early June regarding a protest in front of the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

The Arabic message read: “Can you please cover [the protest] for your brothers detained in Saudi Arabia in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington. My brother was detained in Ramadan and I am on a scholarship here so please do not link me to this. [LINK]. Cover the protest now it will start in less than an hour. We need your support please.”

The link would have installed “Pegasus” if clicked. Pegasus is a sophisticated surveillance tool developed by the company named NSO – an Israel based company – which installs the user’s smartphone and steals away all the phone’s crucial information which includes: all contact names with phone numbers, text messages, email, Facebook messages and all other things from Skype, Viber, WeChat, Telegram and WhatsApp.

The human rights organization based in London said that it was successful in tracing the malicious link to a network of sites related to the NSO Group.

As per NSO’s claim in a written statement that the product was “intended to be used exclusively for the investigation and prevention of crime and terrorism” and that allegations being made of wrongdoing would be investigated.

Previously, the company admitted charging customers USD 650,000 to hack at least 10 devices on top of a USD 500,000 installation fee.

Amnesty International’s head of technology and human rights, Joshua Franco, said that the latest hacking attempt was emblematic of the more digital risk activists faced.

“This chilling attack on Amnesty International highlights the grave risk posed to activists around the world.

“NSO Group is known to only sell its spyware to governments. We, therefore, believe that this was a deliberate attempt to infiltrate Amnesty International by a government hostile to our human rights work,” Franco said.

“We are working with human rights activists to help them protect themselves against similar cowardly attacks, and ensure that abusive governments cannot use technology to silence them.”

NSO has been called the culprit in a series of digital break-in attempts which includes a campaign against journalists, human-rights activists and lawyers working on murders and corruption in Mexico and an effort to hack into an Arab dissident’s phone that prompted an update to Apple’s operating system.

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