According to an expose by a global consortium of media publications, phones of two serving union ministers, three opposition leaders, one constitutional authority, current and former heads of security organisations, administrators and 40 senior journalists and activists from India were allegedly bugged using the Israel spy software Pegasus and put on surveillance.
What is Pegasus?
Pegasus is a type of malicious software or malware classified as a spyware and is designed to gain access to any device, without the knowledge of its owner and gather personal information and relay it back to whoever it is that is using the software to spy. Pegasus, can hack into iPads and iPhones despite Apple products being known to be among the safest and best for data privacy. It can monitor up to 500 phones in a year, but can only track a maximum of 50 at one go.
How does it work?
A hacker can infect a victim’s device with Pegasus using a phishing link, mostly sent via a text message that looks innocent and benign.
Clicking on the phishing link would (without the victim’s knowledge) start the download of Pegasus on the device and set up a connection with a hacker’s command computer that could be thousands of miles away.
The hacker can then communicate with the Pegasus spyware via the remote command centre and issue directions for what information the spyware should send back to the hacker’s server. Pegasus is extremely sophisticated software. It can self-destroy it self if it can’t communicate with the hacker’s control centre for over 60 days.
Who owns Pegasus?
Pegasus has been developed by the Israeli firm NSO Group that was set up on 25 January 2010. NSO isc an acronym for the first name initials of the founders Niv Carmi, Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, all of whom are Israeli citizens and were part of Israeli security services.
Who uses Pegasus?
As per the website of NSO, its products are used exclusively by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight crime and terror. There are 45 countries, including India, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, where it is being used.