"The first thing al-Masarir noticed was that his phones were behaving weirdly. They had become very slow, with the batteries running out quickly. Then he noticed seeing the same faces appear in different parts of London. People who seemed to be Saudi regime supporters began stopping him in the street, harassing and filming him. But how did they know where he was all the time? Al-Masarir feared his phone was being used to spy on him."
"Cyber experts would later confirm he'd become the latest victim to be spied on with the infamous Pegasus hacking tool. "It was something that I couldn't comprehend. They can see your location. They can turn on the camera. They can turn on the microphone, listen to you," al-Masarir tells the BBC. "They got your data, all pictures, everything. You feel you've been violated.""
With hundreds of millions of views, Ghanem al-Masarir gained prominence as a critic of the Saudi royal family. In 2018 his iPhones were hacked after he clicked links in three text messages offering special memberships. The phones slowed, batteries drained, and he began encountering the same faces across London who harassed, filmed and later assaulted him. Cyber experts later confirmed infection with the Pegasus spyware, which can reveal location, activate cameras and microphones, and exfiltrate data. After six years of legal battles, a London High Court found Saudi Arabia responsible and ordered more than 3m ($4.1m) in compensation.
Read at www.bbc.com
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