The Spy Inside Your Smartphone

Known for its investigative reporting, El Faro has been referred to as “a breakthrough digital newspaper blazing an independent and ethical trail in Central America.”

So when reporters at the Salvadoran news outlet noticed their cellphones acting strange all of a sudden—batteries draining, unexplained overheating—they had a weird feeling that someone was accessing their messages. They sent one reporter’s phone to Citizen Lab, a watchdog group, and the analysis found something shocking: It was infected with Pegasus, a military-grade surveillance software that can copy messages, harvest photos and even control the phone’s camera and microphone.

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“Okay, I’m the target right now,” reporter Julia Gavarrete recalled. “But the thing was, it’s obvious that it’s not only me.”

The watchdog checked more journalists’ phones, and it quickly became clear that El Faro was under a massive surveillance campaign. But who was behind it?

In this episode, Reveal partners with the Shoot the Messenger podcast to investigate one of the biggest Pegasus hacks ever uncovered.

This is an update of an episode that originally aired in September 2023.