RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – To the astonishment of many observers, Brazil does not seem to be able to protect top government officials from simple cell phone hacks.
After Justice Minister Sérgio Moro’s was hacked in June, a few days ago Economy Minister Paulo Guedes and Deputy Joice Hasselmann claimed that their phones too fell victim to hackers. The latest victim is president Jair Bolsonaro, whose cell phone is said to have been hacked too.
Bolsonaro is the highest-ranking government official to be targeted by alledged hackers so far. “I was informed by the Federal Police and @JusticaGovBR (Justice Ministry) that my cell phones were invaded by the gang arrested on Tuesday, 23rd of July. A serious attempt on Brazil and its institutions. May they be harshly punished! Brazil is no longer a land without law,” tweeted the head of state on Thursday.
Moro has said this arrested group of alleged hackers was the source for “those who published alleged messages obtained illegally” – a reference to a trove of encrypted chats released by The Intercept investigative website in recent weeks.
On Wednesday, Moro accused Brazil’s Workers Party (PT), which Lula helped found decades ago, of carrying out the hacks, which the party said was “clearly another spectacular attempt by Moro to frame the PT and his opponents.”
A federal forensics analyst says the group allegedly specialized in financial crimes might have hacked into more than 1,000 phones.
Moro has linked the alleged hackers to leaked messages that damaged his reputation as a former judge of the sprawling Car Wash corruption probe.
Moro has denied any wrongdoing and refused to resign over the scandal, saying criminals had hacked the mobile phones with the aim of overturning convictions resulting from the probe that has claimed the scalps of scores of high-profile figures, including Lula, since it began in 2014.