Shocking! Ghanaian Gov’t Spies On Citizens By Hacking Into Phones With Notorial Israeli Pegasus Software

Israeli online portal, Haaretz, has reported details of a documentary on the government of Ghana’s purchase of the Pegasus spyware from Israeli company, NSO, in 2015 and how the spyware is used to snoop on Ghanaians in their day-to-day life.

According to the report which indicates that every Ghanaian is under surveillance from the government, the system works by hacking the personal phones of citizens and secretly installing itself into the phone, unbeknownst to the user.

Once Pegasus infests a phone this way, every single whisper is recorded and transferred to the operators of the software, rendering every Ghanaian exposed.

And the system is so powerful it can hack every kind of phone – android, iPhone and blackberry, according to the revelation.

The report is entitled “Hamakor” was screened last Thursday.

Hamakor includes footage of NSO employees in Ghana and their testimonies about how they trained local officials to use the cellphone surveillance system.

The erstwhile Mahama government which had bought the spyware had used a convoluted plan that created the impression that the spyware had been bought by the telecommunications authority, but was actually purchased by the government for political snooping ahead of a 2016 election.

According to the report, eight Israelis employed by NSO traveled to Ghana in 2016 to install the system and train locals to use it.

“I coached them on how to use it,” one employee told “Hamakor.” The report revealed security camera footage from the airport that showed the team of NSO workers, both men and women, arriving in the African country. The report even included shots of their passports and visas,” an NSO employee who traveled to the country told the reporter.

“I was there for a couple of days. We met with locals, but we just instructed them on how to use it. We never had access to targets and any time they would try to talk to us about what activity they wanted to use it for, we would stop them,”

According to the report, in December 2015, a deal was signed between NSO and NSO’s local representative – George Oppong – for the sale of the system for $5.5 million. Then a second deal for reselling the system was signed between Oppong and Ghana’s telecommunications body for $8 million.

Alongside the videos and workers’ testimonies, the “Hamakor” report also revealed the contract, shedding light on how Pegasus is marketed and what capabilities it is said to have according to the report.

It said the contract explains how Pegasus can break into a cellphone and provide full access to the phone, its contents and location. Moreover, the contract says, Pegasus can turn any infected phone into a secret microphone and camera, which can be operated remotely and provide a live feed to the operator.

The phone, the contract presented in the report said, would keep working without its owner knowing it was broadcasting all of the information.

The contract also detailed how infections are achieved. In a “zero-click” infection, for instance, infection is done by silently pushing an installation to the device. This method does not require target engagement.

The other option is to send a tainted SMS, or “crafted message” as the contract described it, in which an “innocent message is sent to the target device that contains text and a link. The message content and link lure the target to click (only once) and browse to an innocent website. Clicking the link triggers a silent installation in the background.”

The contract said that any web address can “be used as the installation link.” It also said that Pegasus continues to work even after software updates and could also break into encrypted apps like Telegram and WhatsApp.

Oppong was one of five individuals charged for crimes related to their roles in the purchase of the NSO system. He was acquitted but three others, all government officials, were found guilty and received jail sentences.

Hamakor in concert with the Pegasus contracts also cites an Israeli lawyer, Pninat Yanay, as being part of the deal and receiving tens of thousands of dollars for her role in mediating the sale to GoG.

Ms. Yanay is said to have since responded that she represented a U.S. company and could not comment on the deal.

“Hamakor” said the Pegasus deal fell apart after a few months over financial issues with the mediator. And despite its initial denial of any involvement in Ghana, NSO did later confirm that there was a deal but the system was never operational.

NSO claimed the fact that the deal never went through showed that its oversight works and that once there was any danger of potential wrongdoing, it ended all communications with the Ghanaians.

In 2017, after the election, the Akufo-Addo government hired an Israeli firm called Megido to investigate the NSO deal and they found, together with the local intelligence agency, that corruption was involved leading to the prosecutions.