22.07.2021 – 08:43
Amnesty International researchers have developed a package that can help users identify if their phone has a Pegasus spy system.
According to foreign media, the phone verification package works on both iOS and Android OS. It simplifies the process of data acquisition and analysis from Android devices and analyzes data from iOS backups to identify possible traces of intrusion.
The researchers noted that there are more forensic clues available to investigators on Apple iOS devices than on Android devices. As a result, the latest cases of interference confirmed by Pegasus have involved the iPhone.
Amnesty has made available the open source toolkit which works on the command line and requires some knowledge of how to log in and may not be very easy for all users.
To install the package, users need to install a package called python, available on the MVT (Mobile Verification Toolkit) website. It also includes instructions for both, iOS and Android on how to proceed with the process. Before downloading MVT, users should get a backup of their iOS device.
Amnesty stressed that the purpose of the MVT is to facilitate ‘consensual forensic analysis’ of the devices of those who may be the target of sophisticated spyware attacks on mobile phones.