Princess Haya: Dubai ruler had ex-wife’s phone hacked, High Court rules
Andrew McFarlane, the UK’s most senior family court judge, said in his ruling on Wednesday 6 October that the hack took place using ‘Pegasus’ software – a highly sophisticated spyware – licensed in Dubai and the UAE by an Israeli company, to get into the phone of his estranged wife and legal representatives.
The BBC writes that the ‘extent of the hack is shocking in what data it gave the hackers access to’. It is reportedly able to: ‘Track the location of the individual using the phone, read their SMS messages, emails and messages in other apps, as well as eavesdrop on their phone calls and access their contact list, passwords, calendar dates and photographs. In other words, it gives the hacker complete access to all the data they want to see in their target's phone.’
On top of that, it also allows the hacker to ‘activate the target's phone without their knowledge, recording their activity and even taking photographs and screenshots.’ According to reports, it is extremely difficult for a victim of such spyware to even detect that their phone has been infected with Pegasus.
As reported by the BBC, Princess Haya said the discovery made her feel ‘hunted and haunted’ whereas Sheikh Mohammed has denied any knowledge of the hacking. He has reportedly said that the court’s findings were based on evidence that was not disclosed to him and that they were ‘made in a manner which was unfair’.
The revelations come as just another strike against the Sheikh – who was the subject of a BBC Panorama earlier this year, entitled The Missing Princess, which investigated the whereabouts of his daughter, Princess Latifa.
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