The Pegasus Story- I

The Pegasus software has made news all over the world and India has also come in its ambit.

Here in this series of articles, I present a brief background of the problem and its origin, thereafter zooming in to India and to the situation as on date.

To begin with, there is an Israeli company called NSO Group Technologies Limited (NSO standing for = Niv, Shalev, and Omri, the names of the three founders of the Company), which is a cyber-intelligence firm. The most well know product of NSO Group is Pegasus.

Pegasus is a spyware (spying software), ie., a malware which has the purpose of gathering information about an entity and sending it to another, through means of software. Spywares violate the user’s privacy and endanger the device security.

Pegasus is said to have the ability to potentially access calls and messages, Emails, Contacts, Photos and files, Microphone and camera ad even Real-time location data.

What is even more dangerous is the fact that many versions of Pegasus are said to operate through “zero-click” exploits, meaning thereby that the user does not even need to click any link for initiation or triggering the Software.

Pegasus has the ability to be covertly and remotely installed on mobile phones running iOS and Android system.

As per repeated claims made by NSO Group, it markets Pegasus only to Government and Government agencies to fight crime and terrorism, so that individuals and non-government organizations cannot purchase this product.

In contrast, there have been case around the world, where allegations of misuse of the spyware to surveil journalists, lawyers, political dissidents, and human rights activists have emerged.