Pegasus: Worldwide espionage case uncovered
Amnesty International technology specialists have evaluated several cell phones on which surveillance software was found. The children of the Israeli security company NSO are said to wiretap hundreds of journalists and activists.
According to an international consortium of journalists and Amnesty International, a Trojan horse belonging to the Israeli security company NSO called "Pegasus" allegedly monitored and wiretapped hundreds of politicians and activists. Customers of NSO are said to have according to the German Tagesschau be able to use the spying software to eavesdrop on the smartphones of journalists and human rights activists as well.
The journalists' association has a list of 50,000 surveillance victims. Among them are 180 journalists, for example from CNN and Le Monde. NSO officially sells the software only to government agencies for terror prevention. According to the consortium's research, however, there are indications that authoritarian regimes also use the Trojan to monitor certain groups.
Extensive access rights
Among experts, Pegasus is considered to be a very effective surveillance weapon. The software gains access to the camera, microphone and location of cell phone users, for example. As the Tagesschau reports, there are different ways how the Trojan gets onto the opfter's device. The opfter usually receives an email or an SMS. When a link is clicked, the monitoring software is virtually installed. According to IT researchers at the University of Toronto, the software also exploits security vulnerabilities in the iOS and Android mobile operating systems to gain access to the phone.
France's government spokesman Garbiel Attal spoke of an "extremely shocking set of facts," according to the SDA news agency. The surveillance software is also likely to have played a role in the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
Sources: Tagesschau, SDA, Netzwoche
