This spy software from NSO Group is claimed to be used by authoritarian governments as a surveillance tool to track rights activists, journalists, and lawyers around the world
Pegasus spyware can harvest any data from a victim’s phone like SMS, Email, Photos/Videos, Contacts, and WhatsApp Chats, as well as activate the microphone, activate the camera, record calls, etc.
NSO Group, a private firm based in Israel, says their software is intended for use against criminals and terrorists and is made available to military, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies of different countries.
Media outlets under investigation say that the phone numbers on the list are from 50 countries and include politicians and heads of state, business executives, activists, and several Arab royal family members. More than 180 journalists were also found to be on the list, from organisations including CNN, the New York Times, and Al Jazeera.
Many of the numbers were clustered in 10 countries: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, according to the reports.
”They are on a list of some 50,000 phone numbers of people believed to be of interest to clients of the company, NSO Group, leaked to major news outlets.
It was not clear where the list came from – or how many phones had been hacked.”
A significant incident:
The murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a US-based critic of Saudi Arabia’s government, was accomplished using this spyware to monitor the people closest to Khashoggi and other people of his inner circle.