We chose the name “Pegasus” because the software is a Trojan horse, even a Trojan horse with wings, which flies directly to the mobile phone, said once in an interview Shalev Hulio, head of the Israeli firm NSO. Even the spying program can be installed remotely, without any intervention in the apparatus, in complete secrecy, without the knowledge of the person being eavesdropped on, even without the need for the victim to do anything.
Best selling product
Pegasus is the firm’s bestseller. Around the world, the secret services and police authorities use this program to spy completely and unnoticed on their targets.
If the attackers managed to get Pegasus into someone’s cell phone, then they have complete control over the device. They are able to copy all the data from the mobile phone and secretly activate the microphone or camera and even read encrypted messages. One of the main reasons for the popularity of controversial software is probably the fact that Pegasus can be installed relatively easily on mobile and this can hardly be prevented.
To save lives ?!
The manufacturer states that it sells its technology only to verified government organizations. And only to fight terrorism and crime. To that end, the NSO reports, the software is used “every day” worldwide to fulfill a “life-saving mission”.
But around the world, hundreds of journalists, human rights activists, lawyers and politicians, including presidents, have been spied on with powerful espionage software.
Eavesdropping on journalists and activists
This results from the research conducted by an international consortium of journalists, which also includes NDR, WDR, “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and the weekly newspaper “Zeit”. Journalists’ searches along with Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International revealed a record of more than 50,000 wiretapped phone numbers.
Spy software has been used against journalists and human rights activists in Belarus, Hungary and Saudi Arabia.
According to the media, Pegasus espionage software has also been used against French President Emanuel Macron and other French politicians./DW
