Monday 19 July 2021 - 3:15pm
More recent versions of Pegasus have exploited weak spots in software commonly installed on mobile phones
AFP/File | Chris DELMAS
PARIS - Governments around the world are facing bombshell allegations that they used Israeli-made malware to spy on the phones of activists, journalists, corporate executives and politicians.
But how exactly does the Pegasus spyware work? How does it get onto people s phones and what can it do once it s there?
How does Pegasus sneak its way onto a phone?
Researchers believe that early versions of the hacking software, first detected in 2016, used booby-trapped text messages to install itself onto the phones of targets.
According to security experts at Amnesty International who worked with the media organizations,
Pegasus works by infecting phones with spyware via vulnerabilities in common apps, or by getting the target to click on an infected link.
Once infected, the Pegasus operator may access the target’s text messages, call logs, GPS data, photos and emails, and secretly activate the phone’s camera and microphone.
The investigation found an alleged 50,000 phone numbers that have been identified as persons of interest by clients of Pegasus, which is allegedly used by officials in Mexico, Morocco, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates, among other countries.
July 20, 2021
ISLAMABAD: A global investigation into the leaked data of phone records has revealed that more than 50,000 numbers were targeted through Israel-made surveillance software by its client governments in different countries which are hostile towards journalists, activists and political opponents. At least, 180 journalists were surveilled through the Pegasus software the Israeli firm, NSO Group, sold to different governments.
More than 2000 Pakistanis and Indians were also targets of surveillance done through Pegasus between 2017 and 2019, the identities of Pakistanis are not known. An earlier report indicated that around a couple of defense and intelligence officials from Pakistan were also spied through this software.
Kishor, Didi’s nephew on Pegasus’s radar?
Updated: Jul 20, 2021, 06:00 IST
Unidentified agency using deadly spyware to keep an eye on BJP’s rivals’
NEWDELHI In the midst of the heated assembly elections in West Bengal, the phone of poll strategist
Prashant Kishor (in pic) was broken into using
NSO Group’
s Pegasus spyware, according to digital forensics conducted by Amnesty International’s Security Lab and shared with The
Wire.
In addition, the mobile number of key strategist MLA Abhishek Banerjee, who is the nephew of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, was also selected as a potential target for surveillance by a government client of NSO Group, an investigation of leaked data by The Wire and its media partners on the Pegasus Project has shown. Also on the list is Banerjee’s personal secretary.
New details show how Pegasus was used to spy on political opponents
Further details emerged on Monday about the nature and extent of the spyware operation called Pegasus that has been used by governments since at least 2016 to hack into the smartphones of thousands of journalists, activists and business and political figures around the world.
The existence of the secret spying software was exposed on Sunday by the French non-profit media group Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International in cooperation with a reporting consortium that includes the
Guardian, the
Washington Post and 15 other media organizations following a data breach of its developer, the Israeli-based cybersecurity firm NSO, several months ago.