18:05 22/07/2021
Israeli firm NSO's Pegasus software is one of the most powerful surveillance tools in the world. The program can be secretly installed on the mobile phone without the knowledge of the affected person.
We chose the name "Pegasus" because the software is a Trojan horse, even a Trojan horse with wings, that flies directly to the mobile phone, as Shalev Hulio, the head of the Israeli firm NSO, once said in an interview. Spyware can even be installed remotely, without any intervention in the device, completely covertly, without the knowledge of the person being tapped, without even the need for the victim to do anything.
Best selling product
Trojan "Pegasus" is the firm's bestseller. All over the world, secret services and police authorities use this program to spy completely and without being noticed on their target persons.
NSO Group, Israel
If attackers have managed to get Pegasus into someone's phone, then they have full 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 the controversial software is probably the fact that "Pegasus" can be installed relatively easily on mobile phones and this can hardly be prevented.
To save lives?!
The manufacturer states that it only sells its technology to verified government organizations. And only to fight terrorism and crime. To that end, the NSO reports, the software is used "every day" around the world fulfilling a "life-saving mission."
But around the world, hundreds of journalists, human rights activists, lawyers and politicians, including presidents, have been spied on by powerful spyware.
Interception of journalists and activists
This results from research done by an international consortium of journalists, which includes NDR, WDR, "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and the weekly newspaper "Zeit". Investigations by journalists together with the organization Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International revealed a record of more than 50.000 tapped phone numbers.
Pegasus has also been used against French President Emmanuel Macron
Spyware has been used against journalists and human rights activists in Belarus, Hungary and Saudi Arabia.
According to the media, the Pegasus spy software has also been used against French President Emmanuel Macron and other French politicians./DW
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