The Financial Times (FT) and Reuters reported extensively on the allegations that students, opposition activists and other persons in Serbia were targets of advanced espionage programs - Israeli Pegasus and the domestic NoviSpy.
According to FT, since the beginning of the year, more than ten students and opposition activists it was targeted spyware, which represents the most extensive wave of such surveillance documented so far in Serbia.
Students: We were targeted by spyware
In at least one case, Canadian digital security experts confirmed that a student activist's phone was remotely infected with Pegasus, software from the Israeli company NSO. In another case, according to the FT and Reuters, domestic software NoviSpy was installed on the phone during the person's stay in police custody, Beta reports.
The SHARE Foundation documented 14 cases of spying this year. In 12 cases, people contacted her after receiving an August warning from Apple that their iPhones were potentially compromised.
The organization Citizen Lab (Citizen Lab) from the University of Toronto analyzed one of those cases and determined that the phone was infected with Pegasus thanks to a security flaw in the iPhone. The target of the attack did not have to open the link or take any action. The remaining 11 cases are still being analyzed, according to the FT.
"Peaceful pro-democracy movement targeted by commercial spyware"
John Scott-Railton of Citizen Lab assessed for the FT and Reuters that Apple's new warnings show that, as he stated, "the peaceful pro-democracy movement in Serbia is being aggressively targeted by commercial spyware" ahead of the crucial 2026 elections.
One of the students who received Apple's warning is Ognjen Rašić, a 21-year-old student of communication studies from the University of Niš. He received the notice on August 13. He told the FT that he had a "weird feeling" that someone used multi-million dollar software to access data from his phone.
Vučić on the students' claims about wiretapping: "They are stupid and pointless"
Rašić, a member of the student movement, suspects that the Serbian government is behind the attack and that he became a target because of his involvement in election observation and the campaign for the local elections held in March.
In addition to Pegasus, SHARE documented two other cases in which NoviSpy, a homegrown spyware, was used for Android devices.
What does the Pegasus software used to spy on students do?
The public learned about NoviSpy after the Amnesty International report from 2024, in which Serbia was described as a "digital prison". Unlike Pegasus, NoviSpy must be physically installed on the device, after which it can continuously collect data and enable remote activation of the microphone and camera.
The Role of the Police and Informers
One of the people whose phone was compromised told the FT that she began to notice unusual behavior from the device after she was allegedly illegally detained by police several hours before the March election. Due to the rapid discharge of the battery and the changed appearance of its indicator, she turned to SHARE, whose analysis confirmed the presence of NoviSpy.
Brnabić: The state does not spy on students
In another case, a person suspected that she was under surveillance after Informer editor-in-chief Dragan J. Vučićević spoke about private messages from her phone during a television program.
The FT states that it had access to the video in which Vučićević says that closed groups on Vocap and Viber are being monitored, with the message that it will not be explained how this access was achieved.
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