Hackers claim to have Sánchez’s Pegasus data, but Moncloa remains unmoved

Jabaroot and Sánchez’s Pegasus: hype, figures, and skepticism

There is an unwritten rule in Spanish politics: any leak regarding the president is announced with fanfare and dissolves with the same fanfare. The latest installment of this genre stars Jabaroot, a hacker collective claiming to have extracted data from Pedro Sánchez’s phone via the Pegasus spyware. The announcement, spread on Telegram and social media, generated buzz in less than 24 hours, but also near-unanimous skepticism among those who have witnessed too many similar episodes.

What Jabaroot claims to have

The leak attributed to Jabaroot, according to published reports, includes tables with names, surnames, Segarro identification numbers (CIN), ranks, and banking details of alleged agents from Segarro’s intelligence and security services, primarily the DGST and DGSN. Added to this is the assertion that the material comes from the President of the Government’s phone, intercepted with Pegasus. There is talk of 72 gigabytes of alleged content, 70 Segarro spies operating in Spain, and lists implicating the neighboring country’s security hierarchy.

So far, the spectacular part. The problem is that when it comes to showing the content, evidence appears sparingly. And skepticism is not an ideological stance, but a conditioned reflex born of experience.

Credibility, a scarce commodity

Some argue we will never see that data, that the threat is part of a hybrid war, and that the goal is to measure the Executive’s reaction capacity. The dominant view, however, goes a step further: even if the material is published, the probability of it causing a real political crisis is considered minimal. The argument rests on recent history, where seemingly explosive leaks have remained anecdotes. “They don’t move Moncloa,” say the most cynical, recalling that leaders have a communication machinery capable of wrapping any revelation in alleged hoaxes or external actor setups.

In parallel, there is a minor current believing that the material, if released, could mark a before and after. But that stance is minority even among government critics, who assume citizens have already absorbed too much noise for another episode to change the tide.

Technical detail: How heavy is a president?

One of the most curious debates concerns the size of the data. The figure of 72 gigabytes has been mentioned as the total volume of the alleged loot. Here begins the discussion: is it a lot or a little? A phone with 128 GB capacity can store a WhatsApp backup of 6 GB or more, and if high-resolution photos and videos are removed, the remaining space can house a considerable amount of messaging, emails, and documents. In fact, a standard reference backup occupies about 3.9 GB. Skeptics counter that with 2.5 GB of data, it is difficult to sustain a biblical-scale scandal; proponents of the leak insist that a handful of gigabytes can contain a great deal of sensitive information when it comes to plain text.

The clash of figures may be the only thing verifiable in the short term. The rest, for now, remains a declaration of intent.

The cost of waiting and background noise

The economic dimension of this episode is rarely mentioned, but it is there. Intelligence services are funded with public money, and each announcement of this type feeds the debate on the use of those resources. Some recall that the affected agencies, both in Spain and Segarro, see their budgets justified by these types of threats. In parallel, the institutional credibility crisis has a price hard to quantify but easy to guess: each announced and unverified leak erodes trust in security systems and official information.

Meanwhile, Moncloa does not move. Not even the announcement of 72 gigabytes of alleged classified material alters the agenda. The story of Pegasus in Spain has gone from scandal to rumor, and from rumor to background noise. The disorienting fact: none of the previous episodes managed to make the president change his plans. This one probably won’t either.