The million-dollar reporter: how attackers infected the iPhone of Russian journalist Galina Timchenko with Israeli spyware Pegasus

The public has known for years that governments around the world use software developed by an Israeli cyber-arms company to spy on journalists, opposition politicians, and activists. Investigative journalists published a series of bombshell reports in July 2021 about the widespread abuse of Pegasus, a powerful tool marketed exclusively to state clients. Earlier this summer, Meduza learned that the iPhone of its co-founder and publisher, Galina Timchenko, was infected with Pegasus mere hours before she joined a private conference in Berlin attended by colleagues in the exiled Russian independent media. It is the first confirmed case of a Pegasus attack against a Russian journalist.