The Pegasus spy software made by the Israeli company, NSO Group, is indeed sophisticated. As far as WhatsApp Chief, Will Cathcart, warns that the Pegasus threat is taken seriously.
Pegasus, which is expensive, was bought by the rich and the governments of several countries to spy on targeted figures such as activists. According to Will, the cell phones of senior government officials and U.S. allies were targeted.
Pegasus is able to infiltrate a cell phone without requiring the user to do anything like click a certain link. In 2019, a security vulnerability in WhatsApp was targeted by Pegasus where 1,400 WhatsApp users were targeted before the vulnerability was fixed.
Last week, an investigation by 17 media outlets and Amnesty International found that the mobile phones of journalists, politicians and human rights activists had been infected by Pegasus. Will said the attack was similar to the attack that hit WhatsApp two years ago. WhatsApp itself has sued the NSO Group over the attack.
"The report is in line with what we saw in the attack we defeated two years ago, this is very consistent with what we said out loud later," Will said in an interview with the Guardian.
"This should be a reminder for internet safety. Mobile phones can be safe for everyone or unsafe for everyone," he said.
About 50,000 cell phone numbers are suspected to be on the list of people targeted by Pegasus buyers. The NSO group itself stated that the figure was too high and that Pegasus spyware was often considered incorrect.
But basically according to Will, Pegasus attacks are increasingly being targeted. "In a few years, the number of people being attacked is very high. That's why I feel it's very important to raise awareness about this," Will said.
WhatsApp bosses also want vendors like Apple not to underestimate the problem, for example by saying that only a handful of users are affected by Pegasus. Because if there's only one iPhone or cell phone that can't fend off a Pegasus attack, then the other phones aren't safe either.
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