The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) purchased Israeli-made Pegasus spyware in 2019, the German newspaper Die Zeit confirmed on Tuesday.
Pegasus spyware is produced by the Israeli NSO Group cyber company and recently came under heavy criticism when a report back in July suggested that the software had been used by authoritarian governments worldwide.
The spyware had been used to hack 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists around the world, according to the report.
The report also revealed that information from over 50,000 phone numbers had been acquired by clients of the spyware company.
A list of potential targets as set by NSO customers, including French President Emmanual Macron, was then released by multiple sources shortly thereafter, including by Die Zeit and Haaretz. NSO has denied any connection to the list, Haaretz reported, but Pegasus software has been found on several of the potential targets' phones.
Additionally, Amnesty International sued in the Tel Aviv District Court to have NSO's export license revoked back in 2019, but was unsuccessful after over 20 Defense Ministry officials testified on how important Pegasus was to national security.
The software caused controversy long before this report came to light because it can spy on android and Apple smartphones in real-time, allowing conversations to be recorded, data to be collected, and bypassing the encryption on messaging apps, all without the user ever knowing.
Pegasus was reportedly purchased by the federal government in "utmost secrecy," and the Interior Committee of the Bundestag was informed of the purchase in a "closed-door session," Die Zeit reported.
According to German sources also speaking to the newspaper, the decision to purchase the controversial Israeli software came after the BKA failed to produce their own version of the software back in 2017.
Contact was made with the NSO Group that same year, when, according to the sources, representatives of the company visited the police headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany, in order to present the software and its capabilities.
The purchase has proven to be controversial, Haaretz reported, and has caused disagreements between the German Interior Ministry and BKA, who report to them.
This is due to the extensive capabilities of the software, Haaretz explained, which some say violate German law, which allows phone tracking only in exceptional circumstances.
To combat that, some functions were reportedly blocked, although it is unclear how, and to what extent this limited the capabilities of the spyware.
German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung confirmed that BKA vice president Martina Link had reported the software purchase to lawmakers at the time, and since March 2021 it has been used in specific and select circumstances relating to terrorism and organized crime.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly said, after the list of potential NSO targets was leaked, that steps must be taken to ensure that the spyware does not fall into the wrong hands and that it must be subject to judicial review in countries where it is used.