Pegasus: How A Spy In Your Pocket Threatens The End Of Privacy, Dignity, And Democracy

The story of the most sophisticated and invasive surveillance weapon ever created, used by governments around the world to spy on their citizens and to target them with blackmail and intimidation Pegasus is the most elegant and sought-after cyber-surveillance tool on the market. Developed by NSO Group, a billion-dollar Israeli corporate investor, this spyware uses a zero-click technique to infect any private cell phone without alerting the owner, virtually undetectably. Pegasus tracks a person's daily movement in real time, gains control of the device's microphones and cameras, and captures all videos, photos, emails, texts, and passwords--encrypted or not. NSO Group casts itself as a global sheriff, a white hat in an increasingly dangerous world. But by early 2021, there were hints of sinister activities among a few of the governments who had licensed Pegasus. NGOs like Citizen Lab and Amnesty International detected a handful of Pegasus infections on the phones of journalists, human rights advocates, and political dissidents in Mexico and Morocco. This is the inside story of a worldwide investigation, sparked by the leak of a list of fifty thousand targets selected by Pegasus end users, which revealed that cyber-intrusion and cyber-surveillance are happening with exponentially increasing frequency, across the globe, at a sweep and scale that astounds. Pegasus, it turns out, is less a law enforcement tool than a weapon for hire and not only a threat to privacy but also to democracy, as the most notorious human-rights-violating governments and autocrat-wannabes are licensing and utilizing Pegasus spyware in the most vulnerable democracies in the world. Pegasus will follow the personal stories of real victims--intrepid individuals who have spoken truth to some of the most corrupt, risible powers around the globe. And they are the canaries in the coal mine. "If they've found a way to hack one iPhone," says Edward Snowden, "they've found a way to hack all iPhones." Meticulously reported and masterfully written, Pegasus shines a light on the lives that have been turned upside down by this unprecedented threat and reveals the chilling new lengths that authoritarian regimes are willing to go to in extending their power.

• | Author: Laurent Richard, Sandrine Rigaud
• | Publisher: Henry Holt And Co.
• | Publication Date: Jan 17, 2023
• | Number of Pages: 336 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 1250858690
• | ISBN-13: 9781250858696