Research by Amnesty International and an international consortium of news organizations indicates that software made by NSO Group, an Israeli spy software maker catering to governments around the world, was used for surveillance of human rights activists, journalists, and government officials despite claims it’s only used for legitimate criminal investigations, the organizations say.
The spyware, dubbed Pegasus, can install itself with administrative privileges on target smartphones, enabling it to monitor calls, siphon off data, and even surreptitiously activate cameras and microphones. It accomplishes this through two means: zero-day exploits, or vulnerabilities that haven’t been publicly disclosed or fixed by software makers, and zero-click attacks, which require no interaction from the user.
Link: What is NSO Group? Report finds its Pegasus spyware was used to track journalists, activists
via www.fastcompany.com
