PEGASUS
- DEFENCE & SECURITY
News:
Pegasus infection found
on Indian journalists’ phones after Apple alert: Amnesty International
What's
in the news?
●
Amnesty International announced that it
found recent traces of Pegasus spyware, sold only to governments, on two Indian journalists’ phones after
they received “state-sponsored attacker”
alerts from Apple in October.
Pegasus:
●
Pegasus is a type of malicious software or malware cum spyware designed to secretly collect
information.
●
It can be introduced surreptitiously into
mobile devices and can suck up all data and meta-data on the infected device as
well as monitor conversations, chats and browsing.
●
It is designed to infiltrate smartphones — Android and iOS — and turn them into
surveillance devices.
Developed
by
- Israeli security firm NSO Group.
Purpose:
●
Collection of historic data on a device
without user knowledge
●
Continuous monitoring of activity and
gathering of personal information and
●
Transmission of this data to third
parties.
How
does Pegasus infiltrate devices?
●
Pegasus is part of a tier called “zero click exploits” whereby it takes
advantage of bugs in popular apps such as iMessage and WhatsApp to infiltrate
the system.
○
A zero-click exploit, unlike most
cyberattacks, doesn’t require any interaction from the users they target, such
as clicking on a link.
○
It relies on vulnerabilities in devices
and software to gain access.
●
Pegasus can also use unsecured websites to infiltrate a device. These are called network injection attacks. The device
is infiltrated within milliseconds of visiting such a website.
●
It also has real-time access to emails,
texts, phone calls, as well as the camera and sound recording capabilities of
the smartphone.
Who
can buy Pegasus?
●
NSO claims it will only sell the software
to verified government agencies, with a
contractual clause that the spyware can only be used in cases of suspected
crime or terrorist activity.
Target
of Pegasus:
●
The stated aim of Pegasus is to fight
crime and terrorism, the database also has the numbers of over 200 journalists
worldwide, including 40 from Indian media houses.
Further
Reference - Types of Cyber Attacks