Pegasus Spyware: A Nightmare among the Indian Journalists and Politicians

Pegasus Spyware has been the talk of the town lately. It's been over a week that we've been hearing about Pegasus in the news, on the Internet, and on social media. Pegasus Spyware has created quite a stir in the political circles of India and the opposition is dragging the government into it in every way. So, let’s discuss here what is this whole matter of Pegasus Spyware, what is Pegasus Spyware and how is used to spy on people.

Why Pegasus Spyware is in the News:

Pegasus Spyware was first coming to light in 2019. It was reported that some journalists and activists WhatsApp accounts were spied on by this spyware. Pegasus Spyware is a highly sophisticated surveillance software. Pegasus Spyware came into the news again when a secret list of people who are journalists and the political persons who may be spied over leaked out. Regarding this news, a blog was first published in one of the lefts leaning online news portal who very deliberately played with the words and let the user believe that person mentioned in this list are spied. But in reality, the words which said this list is of probable suspects who may be spied on are written in twisted language and directly blame the Union Government after that this news article was shared on various social media portals and it got viral and caused the quite a stir in Indian Political circle. It is quoted in this blog that these people have been targeted for surveillance by an unknown agency with the help of the Pegasus Spyware. More than 40 Journalist, Activist and Politicians numbers have been shared as a potential target. So, let's find out what is Pegasus and how it spies on us.

What is Pegasus Spyware:

Pegasus software is spyware which is developed by an Israeli Cyber Security Firm NSO Group. This Pegasus Spyware can be installed secretly on any smartphone device whether it works on iOS or Android. Project Pegasus Revelations 2021 has revealed that Pegasus Spyware can work on the all-latest iOS versions. Pegasus Spyware gets its name from the Mythical Winged Horse “Pegasus”. Pegasus Spyware is a Trojan Horse that can be sent through the air to infect any smartphone. Pegasus Spyware is a new age weapon to take on your enemy or can be used to do surveillance on people who you think can be dangerous or can cause some kind of unstable in the Country. Pegasus spyware developed by NSO Group is capable of consolidating information such as text messages, call trace and track, store passwords, track location and even access the microphone and camera of the target person's device.

How the world finds out about Pegasus Spyware:

Pegasus Spyware first came into the limelight in 2016. Pegasus spyware was used to spy on the iPhone of Arab human rights defender Ahmed Mansour. They received a text message containing a link saying they would provide the secret of what was happening in prison in the UAE. This link was later sent to the Citizen Lab for testing purposes. Lab investigation reveals that if Mansoor had clicked on this link, his iPhone would have installed this spyware. Citizen Lab later discovers a link between the spyware and the NSO Group.

Details about Pegasus Spyware:

Pegasus spyware developed by NSO Group can be installed on devices running iOS as well as devices running Android. Pegasus Spyware is able to exploit the vulnerabilities of these smartphones. This can be set if the target person clicks on a message, link, photo, etc. Sometimes this spyware can be installed without clicking on any of the above. Pegasus spyware is capable of running arbitrary code. This spyware can be used to infect a target's cell by using call logs, contacts extracts, messages, photos, web browsing history, settings etc. Pegasus spyware is also able to get information from apps like iMessage, Gmail, Viber, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype and many more. Pegasus spyware is hidden very deep inside the system and is also capable of self-destructing to remove evidence if it is unable to communicate with the control servers for more than 60 days.

Pegasus Spyware Conclusion:

Pegasus Spyware of the NSO group is so sophisticated and dangerous. This spyware can easily be installed on the target’s smartphone. It’s hard to say about the involvement of the Indian Government in this. The government tried to answer the accusation of the opposition in the Upper House of the Parliament. But as usual, our beloved politicians are not interested in the answer, all they want is to stop the session and want to create a false fearing atmosphere among the people. They are wasting the parliaments time like they always do. Like Manmohan Singh, the former Prime Minister of India once said “If there is the question of the National Security then Spying is must and should be done”. I completely agree with this.