Journalists hacked after critical Qatar cases

Griff group buckles up on the hacking scandal.

An Indian hacker group received payments to hack into the inbox of, among others, the Swiss president, the head of the European Football Association Michel Platini – And many journalists, reveals the British Bureau of Investigative Journalism in cooperation with the Sunday Times.

Several journalists are said to have been subjected to so-called phishing attacks after critical coverage of the controversial FIFA World Cup in Qatar, writes the newspaper.

The attacks are said to have targeted, among other things, the BBC’s political editor Chris MasonFrench tomb journalist Yan Philippineseditor of the Sunday Times Jonathan Calvert A journalist for the Associated Press Alan Suderman.

The article describes how the Sunday Times sent journalists with undercover identities to India, where they pretended to want to hire the hacker group to carry out assignments. There, the leader of the group confirmed that Qatar was behind the payment for hacking against persons affiliated with FIFA, the newspaper wrote.

In 2019, the hacker group started directing attacks against members of the press who brought them into the spotlight FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Sunday Times Editor Jonathan Calvertwho led the newspaper’s work on exposing corruption linked to awarding the championship, was one of the targets.

BBC News’ political editor Chris Mason was reported to have been the victim of hacking attempts shortly after taking office earlier this year. The attacks take the form of fake emails with Twitter or Facebook as senders, which prey on the recipient to provide their password.

The hacker group is said to have a wide range of different clients, many of them British private investigators. Lawyers on behalf of the Qatari authorities deny that they ordered hacker attacks against specific individuals. The Indian man identified as the leader of the hacking group denies that he carried out hacking operations recently.

here in Norway news filter He recently wrote about how Qatari leaders plan PR actions against Norwegian critics.