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Pegasus – possibly the most powerful piece of spyware ever developed – has been found on mobile phones around the world.
A major investigation is alleging that the malware was used to hack the phones of politicians, activists and prominent news editors worldwide.
The hacking software – or spyware – is marketed and licensed to governments by Israeli company NSO Group.
French-based non-profit media organization Forbidden Stories has shared access to a leaked list that contains more than 50,000 phone numbers.
The military-grade spyware is used by governments to track terrorists and criminals.
It’s alleged the malware was used to successfully hack the smartphones of journalists, human rights activists, business executives and the two women closest to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, The Washington Post reports.
Earlier versions of Pegasus used spear-phishing – targeted emails used to deploy malicious software.
It is now capable of so-called “zero-click” attacks. These exploit “zero-day” vulnerabilities.
That means a simple WhatsApp call can infect devices with malicious code – even if the target doesn’t pick up the phone.
