Activists and researchers found that the software was used to attack the phones of activists, journalists, and businessmen. Governments of different countries expressed their dissatisfaction.
The Pegasus incident is a wacky case of digital espionage. Security researchers found evidence of attempts or successful installations of the Pegasus software, created by an Israeli cybersecurity company, on 37 phones of activists, journalists and businessmen. It appears that activists and others have been secretly monitored by software designed to target criminals and terrorists.
Suddenly, a politically explosive problem has emerged. Israel has been under tremendous pressure from both activists and governments concerned about the misuse of NSO Group software . France and the United States have expressed concern, and the National Statistical Office has suspended Pegasus privileges in some countries.
According to activist organizations, the program could have hacked more than 50,000 phone numbers of politicians, judges, lawyers, teachers and others. The numbers also include data from 10 prime ministers, three presidents and a king. However, the activists have no evidence that all the people on the list were actually attacked.
The Pegasus story clearly shows how vulnerable we are to digital surveillance. Our most personal information-photos, text messages, and emails-is stored on our phones. Spyware easily learns about everything that happens in our lives. In this case, the program will have no problems with encryption, which protects data sent over the Internet.
The published list contains 50,000 phone numbers from all over the world. However, the NSO refutes the link between the list and the actual phones targeted by Pegasus. The list includes the devices of dozens of people close to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as the devices of reporters from CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. However, the phones of several people on the list were infected or attacked. Among other things, the phone of Claude Mangin, the French wife of a political activist jailed in Morocco, was attacked.
In this article, we will try to understand the incident and give the necessary information about Pegasus.
What is NSO Group?
This is a company that issues licenses for video surveillance software to government agencies. The company says its Pegasus software provides valuable services because encryption technology enables criminals and terrorists to stay out of the shadows. The software secretly runs on smartphones, shedding light on what their owners are doing. Similar software is provided by other companies.
CEO Shalev Julio co-founded the company in 2010. NSO also offers other tools that allow you to determine where the phone is being used, help protect against drones, and identify patterns in mine clearance data.
Previous reports and lawsuits have implicated NSO in other hacks, including the 2018 hack of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In 2018, a Saudi dissident sued NSO, accusing the company of hacking into a device belonging to journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Embassy in Turkey the same year.
What is Pegasus?
Pegasus is NSO's most famous product. According to The Washington Post, it can be installed remotely. The surveillance object does not need to open any document or link to a website. Pegasus provides NSO customers with all the necessary information - text messages, photos, emails, videos, contact lists – and can record phone calls. According to the Washington Post, Pegasus can also secretly turn on the phone's microphone and cameras to create new recordings.
Common security practices, such as updating software and using two-factor authentication, will work in the case of ordinary hackers. However, if experienced, well-funded attackers concentrate their resources on a single person, it will be extremely difficult to protect themselves.
Pegasus is not intended to harass activists, journalists, or politicians. "NSO Group issues licenses for its products only to government intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies for the sole purpose of preventing and investigating terrorist acts and serious crimes," the company's website says. "Our review process goes beyond the legal and regulatory requirements to ensure that our technology is used legally in accordance with the development."
However, the human rights group Amnesty International was able to trace the compromised smartphones to the NSO Group. Citizen Lab, a Canadian security service at the University of Toronto, independently confirmed the findings of Amnesty International after examining phone backup data.
Why is Pegasus in the news?
The Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International shared with 17 news organizations a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers of people deemed to be of interest to NSO clients.
News sites have confirmed the identities of many of the individuals on the list and confirmed the presence of infections on their phones. According to The Washington Post, of the 67 phones on the list, 37 showed signs of installing or attempting to install Pegasus. 34 of these 37 phones were Apple iPhones.
The list of 50,000 phone numbers includes French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi President Barham Salih and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Also present are seven former prime ministers and three current prime ministers, Pakistan's Imran Khan, Egypt's Mostafa Madbouli and Morocco's Saad-Eddine el-Othmani. King Mohammed VI of Morocco is also on the list.
Whose phones were infected by Pegasus?
In addition to the above-mentioned Bitcoin, the phones of two journalists of the Hungarian investigative agency Direkt36 were infected, The Guardian reports.
Pegasus-the phone of Hanan Elatr, the wife of murdered Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, was attacked. However, according to The Washington Post, there is no confirmation that the attack was successful. However, the spyware got on the phone of Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatiji Cengiz, shortly after his death.
According to The Washington Post, seven people with infected phones were found in India, including five journalists and one adviser to an opposition party critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
What does the NSO have to say about this?
NSO recognizes that the company's software may be misused. According to The Washington Post, NSO has shut down two customers in the past 12 months due to concerns about human rights violations. "To date, the NSO has rejected sales opportunities worth more than $ 300 million as a result of a human rights review," the company said in its June transparency report .
However, the NSO strongly disputes any connection to the list of phone numbers. "There is no connection between the 50,000 numbers with NSO Group or Pegasus," the company said in a statement.
"All the allegations of misuse of the system relate to me personally," CEO Shalev Julio told the Post . "The charges undermine the trust we place in our customers. We are investigating all the charges."
The NSO has banned some governments from using Pegasus for the duration of the investigation, NPR reports. In the past, the NSO has also banned the use of the software in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and some Mexican government agencies, according to The Washington Post .
In a statement, the NSO denied "false claims" about Pegasus, which the company said were "based on a misinterpretation of leaked data." The company added that Pegasus "cannot be used for conducting cyber surveillance in the United States."
NSO did not immediately comment on information about the ban on certain countries using Pegasus, as well as on the company's actions aimed at ensuring that the software was used for its intended purpose.
What are the implications of the Pegasus situation?
President Joe Biden's top Middle East adviser met with an Israeli Defense Ministry official to express concerns, The Washington Post and Axios report .
President Macron changed one of his mobile phone numbers and requested new security checks, according to Politico. Macron has called a national security meeting to discuss the issue. Macron also expressed Pegasus ' concerns to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, calling on the country to investigate the NSO and Pegasus, The Guardian reports. Export licenses for Pegasus must be approved by the Israeli Government.
Israel has created a commission to review the situation with Pegasus. And on July 28, the Israeli Defense Forces personally inspected the NSO offices .
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that if the allegations are confirmed, the use of Pegasus "is completely unacceptable. Freedom of the media, a free press is one of the core values of the EU."
The Nationalist Congress Party of India has demanded an investigation into the use of Pegasus.
Edward Snowden, who in 2013 disclosed information about the US National Security Agency's surveillance methods, in an interview with The Guardian called for a ban on the sale of spyware . According to Snowden, otherwise such tools will soon be used to spy on millions of people. "For example, all iPhones use the same software around the world. Therefore, if there is a way to hack one iPhone, it will immediately become possible to hack all the others," Snowden said.
How do I find out if my phone is infected?
Amnesty International has released an open source utility called MVT (Mobile Verification Toolkit), designed to detect traces of Pegasus. The software runs on a personal computer and analyzes data, including backup files exported from an iPhone or Android phone.
The Pegasus incident is a wacky case of digital espionage. Security researchers found evidence of attempts or successful installations of the Pegasus software, created by an Israeli cybersecurity company, on 37 phones of activists, journalists and businessmen. It appears that activists and others have been secretly monitored by software designed to target criminals and terrorists.
Suddenly, a politically explosive problem has emerged. Israel has been under tremendous pressure from both activists and governments concerned about the misuse of NSO Group software . France and the United States have expressed concern, and the National Statistical Office has suspended Pegasus privileges in some countries.
According to activist organizations, the program could have hacked more than 50,000 phone numbers of politicians, judges, lawyers, teachers and others. The numbers also include data from 10 prime ministers, three presidents and a king. However, the activists have no evidence that all the people on the list were actually attacked.
The Pegasus story clearly shows how vulnerable we are to digital surveillance. Our most personal information-photos, text messages, and emails-is stored on our phones. Spyware easily learns about everything that happens in our lives. In this case, the program will have no problems with encryption, which protects data sent over the Internet.
The published list contains 50,000 phone numbers from all over the world. However, the NSO refutes the link between the list and the actual phones targeted by Pegasus. The list includes the devices of dozens of people close to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as the devices of reporters from CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. However, the phones of several people on the list were infected or attacked. Among other things, the phone of Claude Mangin, the French wife of a political activist jailed in Morocco, was attacked.
In this article, we will try to understand the incident and give the necessary information about Pegasus.
What is NSO Group?
This is a company that issues licenses for video surveillance software to government agencies. The company says its Pegasus software provides valuable services because encryption technology enables criminals and terrorists to stay out of the shadows. The software secretly runs on smartphones, shedding light on what their owners are doing. Similar software is provided by other companies.
CEO Shalev Julio co-founded the company in 2010. NSO also offers other tools that allow you to determine where the phone is being used, help protect against drones, and identify patterns in mine clearance data.
Previous reports and lawsuits have implicated NSO in other hacks, including the 2018 hack of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In 2018, a Saudi dissident sued NSO, accusing the company of hacking into a device belonging to journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Embassy in Turkey the same year.
What is Pegasus?
Pegasus is NSO's most famous product. According to The Washington Post, it can be installed remotely. The surveillance object does not need to open any document or link to a website. Pegasus provides NSO customers with all the necessary information - text messages, photos, emails, videos, contact lists – and can record phone calls. According to the Washington Post, Pegasus can also secretly turn on the phone's microphone and cameras to create new recordings.
Common security practices, such as updating software and using two-factor authentication, will work in the case of ordinary hackers. However, if experienced, well-funded attackers concentrate their resources on a single person, it will be extremely difficult to protect themselves.
Pegasus is not intended to harass activists, journalists, or politicians. "NSO Group issues licenses for its products only to government intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies for the sole purpose of preventing and investigating terrorist acts and serious crimes," the company's website says. "Our review process goes beyond the legal and regulatory requirements to ensure that our technology is used legally in accordance with the development."
However, the human rights group Amnesty International was able to trace the compromised smartphones to the NSO Group. Citizen Lab, a Canadian security service at the University of Toronto, independently confirmed the findings of Amnesty International after examining phone backup data.
Why is Pegasus in the news?
The Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International shared with 17 news organizations a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers of people deemed to be of interest to NSO clients.
News sites have confirmed the identities of many of the individuals on the list and confirmed the presence of infections on their phones. According to The Washington Post, of the 67 phones on the list, 37 showed signs of installing or attempting to install Pegasus. 34 of these 37 phones were Apple iPhones.
The list of 50,000 phone numbers includes French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi President Barham Salih and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Also present are seven former prime ministers and three current prime ministers, Pakistan's Imran Khan, Egypt's Mostafa Madbouli and Morocco's Saad-Eddine el-Othmani. King Mohammed VI of Morocco is also on the list.
Whose phones were infected by Pegasus?
In addition to the above-mentioned Bitcoin, the phones of two journalists of the Hungarian investigative agency Direkt36 were infected, The Guardian reports.
Pegasus-the phone of Hanan Elatr, the wife of murdered Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, was attacked. However, according to The Washington Post, there is no confirmation that the attack was successful. However, the spyware got on the phone of Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatiji Cengiz, shortly after his death.
According to The Washington Post, seven people with infected phones were found in India, including five journalists and one adviser to an opposition party critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
What does the NSO have to say about this?
NSO recognizes that the company's software may be misused. According to The Washington Post, NSO has shut down two customers in the past 12 months due to concerns about human rights violations. "To date, the NSO has rejected sales opportunities worth more than $ 300 million as a result of a human rights review," the company said in its June transparency report .
However, the NSO strongly disputes any connection to the list of phone numbers. "There is no connection between the 50,000 numbers with NSO Group or Pegasus," the company said in a statement.
"All the allegations of misuse of the system relate to me personally," CEO Shalev Julio told the Post . "The charges undermine the trust we place in our customers. We are investigating all the charges."
The NSO has banned some governments from using Pegasus for the duration of the investigation, NPR reports. In the past, the NSO has also banned the use of the software in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and some Mexican government agencies, according to The Washington Post .
In a statement, the NSO denied "false claims" about Pegasus, which the company said were "based on a misinterpretation of leaked data." The company added that Pegasus "cannot be used for conducting cyber surveillance in the United States."
NSO did not immediately comment on information about the ban on certain countries using Pegasus, as well as on the company's actions aimed at ensuring that the software was used for its intended purpose.
What are the implications of the Pegasus situation?
President Joe Biden's top Middle East adviser met with an Israeli Defense Ministry official to express concerns, The Washington Post and Axios report .
President Macron changed one of his mobile phone numbers and requested new security checks, according to Politico. Macron has called a national security meeting to discuss the issue. Macron also expressed Pegasus ' concerns to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, calling on the country to investigate the NSO and Pegasus, The Guardian reports. Export licenses for Pegasus must be approved by the Israeli Government.
Israel has created a commission to review the situation with Pegasus. And on July 28, the Israeli Defense Forces personally inspected the NSO offices .
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that if the allegations are confirmed, the use of Pegasus "is completely unacceptable. Freedom of the media, a free press is one of the core values of the EU."
The Nationalist Congress Party of India has demanded an investigation into the use of Pegasus.
Edward Snowden, who in 2013 disclosed information about the US National Security Agency's surveillance methods, in an interview with The Guardian called for a ban on the sale of spyware . According to Snowden, otherwise such tools will soon be used to spy on millions of people. "For example, all iPhones use the same software around the world. Therefore, if there is a way to hack one iPhone, it will immediately become possible to hack all the others," Snowden said.
How do I find out if my phone is infected?
Amnesty International has released an open source utility called MVT (Mobile Verification Toolkit), designed to detect traces of Pegasus. The software runs on a personal computer and analyzes data, including backup files exported from an iPhone or Android phone.
