Recently, controversy has arisen in India regarding spying from Pegasus spyware. As part of a global collaborative investigative project, it has been learned that Pegasus spyware is used to target The Mobile Phone numbers of multiple people in India. Today we will know what is Pegasus and how it works.
What is Pegasus Spyware?
Pegasus is spyware developed by the Israeli cyber arms firm NSO Group. NSO Group is a cybersecurity company specializing in ‘surveillance technology’ and helps governments and law enforcement agencies worldwide fight crime. Pegasus spyware, as the name suggests, spies on people through their phones. According to prominent media sources, Pegasus not only enables keystroke monitoring of all communications from a phone, but it also enables phone call and location tracking. All this spying happens without the knowledge of the user.
According to the PBNS report, Pegasus sends a link, and if the user clicks on the link, a code allowing surveillance has been installed on the phone, without knowing the user. Pegasus’s malware works in a very smart way in the phone so that the user has no doubts of any kind. For example, it also reaches places where the device is password protected. It does not consume any battery and data so that the user does not have any doubts. Apart from this, it does not keep any history from where it is installed. It is also capable of searching deleted files and history. Its biggest advantage is that it automatically uninstalls when it senses that there is a danger.
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world. It has over 1.5 billion users worldwide. About a quarter of those users, 400 million, are in India. That’s why Pegasusspyware was targeted on WhatsApp. WhatsApp has been used to send such links. By clicking on this link through WhatsApp, the attacker has complete information about the user’s phone. However, the Indian government says that the allegations of government surveillance on people have no solid basis or any truth attached to it. But still, this matter needs to be taken seriously.