All You Should Know About Pegasus Spyware

These days, almost everyone owns a mobile phone. It is our most preferred means of communication. And millions of people own at least one smartphone. With smartphones and the Internet, we can communicate and share experiences with people from all over the globe. This article explains all you should know about Pegasus Spyware

We also store a lot of our data, like documents, photos, and videos, on our phones. But, our heavy reliance on the Internet and our smartphones make us a prime target for hackers. Both personal individuals and businesses are equally affected by cyberattacks. 

Spyware like Pegasus is has raised headlines in the recent past. It has been called the ‘ultimate and most sophisticated spyware’ ever created. So, what is Pegasus? How does it attack your phone? And how can you spot and prevent it? 

What is Pegasus?

Pegasus is powerful spyware created NSO Group, an Israeli cyber-arms company. The company sells surveillance software to many governments of the world. Shalev Hulio founded it in 2010. 

The company claims its Pegasus software is crucial because it helps uncover criminals and terrorists might have gone undetected otherwise. The spyware can penetrate and scan personal information on most Android and iOS mobile phones. 

How does Pegasus attack your phone?

A surveillance team can remotely install Pegasus on a target’s phone even if the target does not open a document or website link. They can then view text messages, images, videos, emails, and contact lists. 

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It can also discreetly turn on the microphone and camera of the infected phone and record phone calls. General cybersecurity practices like updating your software and using two-factor authentication will not remove Pegasus from the phone. 

Earliest Use and Controversy

NSO says the only reason it developed Pegasus is to help government agencies detect and prevent local and global threats. The Mexican authorities first used the software in 2011 to hunt down infamous drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. 

However, many journalists, human rights activists, and politicians say they have been targets too. Most of these individuals live or operate in countries under dictatorial or aristocratic regimes. They claim that these governments use Pegasus to spy on them to stifle democracy. 

Human rights groups like Amnesty International detail how it tracked down infected devices to NSO Group. In 2016, an investigation showed failed attempts to install the spyware on the device of a human rights activist. 

Canadian security firm Citizen Lab backed up these claims after it had studied phone backup data. Also, many other investigations and documentaries showed that Pegasus was used to track people close to murdered Suadi Arabian dissident Jamal Khashoggi. 

These stories drew a lot of attention globally and, Pegasus became widely recognized as the “most advanced” smartphone privacy bridge. Although NSO admits that some people can misuse the software, it denied many of the allegations, calling them ‘false’.  

How can you detect and prevent Pegasus?

A lot of people would like to know the answer to this. But, experts say there is no specific way to prevent Pegasus. Amnesty Internation developed a Toolkit that checks the condition of devices and informs users whether their phones are infected with spyware.

Swiss developer DigiDNA has improved on their iOS device manager, iMazing, to give this Toolkit a boost. The program can identify a variety of spyware, including Pegasus. But it only works on iOS devices that are not rooted. 

Nonetheless, Pegasus has flaws of its own. According to a Pegasus brochure, it does not support installation from browsers other than the device default browser and Chrome (for Android devices).

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This implies that one way to prevent Pegasus is to change the default phone browser. This action will not permit the installation of the spyware. However, if Pegasus exploits a flaw in your phone’s operating system, there is little you can do to prevent it. 

Even if a digital security team checks your phone, they may not find it. So, the best thing you can do is stay up to date with all the security patches your device manufacturer releases. And if you can afford it, change your mobile phone as often as you can.