Israel Company NSO's Pegasus Spyware Used to Hack Middle East Journalists' iPhones Canada-based Citizen Lab found that 36 journalists' iPhones were hacked exploiting a "zero-click" vulnerability in Apple's iMessage. By As per a report by Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog from the University of Toronto, dozens of journalists had their iPhones hacked through exploiting a known vulnerability in Apple's iMessage, allowing hackers "zero-click" access. While the vulnerability has now been fixed, it was used to plant malware that was used by nation-states in at least 36 prominent journalists' phones. Citizens Lab in its report said that hackers planted notorious Pegasus spyware that was developed by Israeli surveillance company NSO Group. The spyware can read text messages, intercept phone calls, use GPS location to track the user and also access the phone's camera and microphone to gather information. Pegasus first came to light in 2016 during a failed attempt to infect a human rights activist's iPhone.