According to the Guardian, a leading Spanish politician in the Catalan independence movement has had his phone targeted by spyware

The messaging app WhatsApp sent a letter to Roger Trent, president of the Catalan regional parliament, confirming that he was the target of a cyberattack carried out via the platform in mid-2019

WhatsApp's letter, which was viewed by journalists from The Guardian and El País, claims that the attackers targeted Trent for "unauthorized access to data and communications on the device"

Niamh Sweeney, WhatsApp's public policy director for Europe, Middle East, and Asia, said that the attackers, probably working at the direction of the Spanish government, used the messaging platform to spy on Torrent's phone without his knowledge He explained in the letter that the attackers spied on Torrent's phone without his knowledge [referring to the attacker's attempt to inject malicious code into Torrent's WhatsApp application

"Based on the information available, we are not in a position to confirm whether Mr Torrent's device has been compromised, as this is only possible through a thorough forensic analysis of the device

Sweeney explained that Catalan nationalist politicians were among the 1,400 WhatsApp users worldwide targeted by spyware in 2019, including government officials, diplomatic experts, journalists, and human rights activists from many countries

In all cases, the various perpetrators are believed to have used spyware produced by the Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group and sold to governments According to The Guardian, the company has not commented on the cases

The WhatsApp flaw exploited by the NSO Group spyware was patched on May 13, 2019

Two other members of the Catalan independence movement were targeted by WhatsApp's spyware, the Guardian said in an earlier article According to the paper, these are the first known cases of NSO Group spyware being used in Europe

"We advocate strong legal oversight to ensure that cyber weapons, such as those used in this cyber attack, are not used to violate individual rights and freedoms that people deserve anywhere in the world," Sweeney said in his letter to Torrent

According to The Guardian, Torrent is preparing to sue Félix Sanz Roldán, its former boss at the Spanish National Intelligence Center He headed the agency at the time of last year's terrorist attacks

WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit against NSO Group in US federal court for violations of the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act This lawsuit is still ongoing

Christoph Hebeisen, director of security intelligence at Lookout, warned that this type of attack is becoming more common worldwide

He said: "The use of sophisticated mobile surveillanceware for domestic spying purposes appears to be more widespread than previously known, including in Western democracies

"Given the prevalence of election meddling and spying on political parties and movements around the world, it is clear that protecting information and communications infrastructure, including mobile devices, is rapidly becoming critical for organizations that need to maintain confidentiality