Pegasus Horror Facts, Israeli-Made Spy Application

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

A series of hacking incidents via short messages have hit several people in the world, ranging from journalists, activists to world leaders using spyware super-advanced scary spy made by an Israeli company, Pegasus.

Pegasus is a spyware product designed to monitor all activities of mobile phone users, such as SMS, email, location data, browsing history, phone calls, and others.

The spyware can also infect a device via a link sent via SMS. Pegasus is usually used by governments and intelligence agencies to monitor targets via smartphone devices.

Pegasus, super sophisticated spyware

Pegasus is a spyware product designed to monitor all activities of mobile phone users, such as SMS, email, location data, browsing history, phone calls, and others.

Another sophistication of this spyware, it can destroy itself if it turns out to infect a cellphone that does not belong to the targeted victim, as stated by cybersecurity analyst John Snow from Kaspersky Lab. Spyware Pegasus is also claimed to be untraceable by anyone.

Pegasus is a spyware designed to monitor all the activities of mobile users, such as SMS, email, location data, browsing history, phone calls, and more.

The software can also be used to copy data, activate the camera, and turn on the microphone to intercept conversations without the victim knowing.

Hack Android, iOS, Whatsapp, iMessege

This spyware takes advantage of security holes that exist at the operating system level (Android and iOS) to applications (Whatsapp or other applications).

This spyware can also infect through links sent via SMS or email. Spyware can also infiltrate through Whatsapp. However, Whatsapp said it had patched a security vulnerability in the application that was exploited by Pegasus.

Citizen Lab calls the spyware sophisticated, because it can infect via iMessege without the user having to do anything. Because, previously in Pegasus, infection was carried out when a user opened a video file or document sent via Whatsapp.

The user’s phone will be infected just by sending an iMessege message. The spyware then instructs the victim’s cellphone to upload their content on the cellphone to a server connected to the NSO Group.

This spyware can attack all types of gadgets running iOS and Android operating systems.

To infect Android devices, Pegasus utilizes the rooting method or Frameroot. While on iOS, this spyware uses the jailbreak method or the process of removing restrictions imposed by Apple.

Made by Israeli company

This sophisticated spyware was created by an Israeli company, fronted by Shalev Hulio, Omri Lavie, and Niv Carmi. Quoted from the official NSO website, they develop cutting-edge technology to prevent terrorism and cybercrime. The company, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, also develops special cyber intelligence tools for governments.

Hacked 1,400 Whatsapp users in 45 countries

Popular social media service, Facebook admits that the security vulnerability of the WhatsApp instant messaging application can be hacked through MP4 format video files.

Apart from sending MP4 files, this spyware can also be infiltrated via WhatsApp by making video calls. Users don’t even need to pick up the video call so Pegasus can infect the victim’s phone.

However, the instant messaging service claims to have added new protections in the system to prevent attacks from the Pegasus spyware.

In late 2019, Facebook Inc sued Pegasus manufacturer NSO Group alleging that the Israeli company used malware to hack into the phones of 1,400 people in 45 countries and conduct surveillance.

Software made by NSO is used to target lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, diplomats, and other senior foreign government officials.