NewsTracker Answers for week of May 09, 2022

Q: Spain’s top intelligence official acknowledged last week that her agency had hacked into the cellphones of “some” of the dozens of Spanish politicians reported to be targeted by spyware but, she said it had proper judicial authorization. Where is Spain?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The spy chief’s admission came during a meeting with lawmakers and was reported by a politician seeking independence for Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region. Catalonia borders what nation north of Spain?

A. Britain

B. France

C. Morocco

D. Portugal


B. France and the tiny nation of Andorra are north of Catalonia. The Canadian-based digital rights group Citizen Lab reported that the controversial Pegasus spyware had infected more than 60 phones of pro-independence Catalans.


Q: Pegasus can turn a phone into a remote listening device, which can record phone calls, copy messages and secretly film its user, sending all of this back to whoever installed the software. The software was developed in which Middle Eastern nation?

A. Israel

B. Saudi Arabia

C. United Arab Emirates

D. Turkey


A. Pegasus spyware was developed and is sold by Israel’s NSO Group, which says it only sells its software to police and intelligence agencies. It is one of several Israeli companies that have made the country a center of the spyware industry.


Q: Pegasus was allegedly used to monitor associates of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi before he was murdered in which Middle Eastern country?

A. Israel

B. Saudi Arabia

C. United Arab Emirates

D. Turkey


D. Khashoggi, a frequent critic of Saudi Crown Mohammed bin Salman, was assassinated in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The 2018 murder of the dissident author by Saudi agents was recorded by Turkish intelligence. Bin Salman denied any involvement, and NSO said its software had no role in the crime. Last year, the U.S. blacklisted NSO over targeting the phones of dissidents, human rights activists, journalists and others.


Q: Pegasus spyware has been linked to the phone of the leader of which European nation?

A. Britain

B. France

C. Spain

D. All of the above


D. Citizen Lab said last month that phones in the office of Britain’s prime minister had been hacked by Pegasus and tied the breach to the United Arab Emirates. Last year, France’s president changed his phone after reports he was targeted by Morocco. And, intelligence officials earlier this month said the phone of Spain’s prime minister had been infected by Pegasus planted by an “external" source.