OVERVIEW
- Malware is a short word for malicious software.
- It is a broad term that means software that is specially designed to harm one’s computer.
- There are different types of malware, like spyware and ransomware. Cybercriminals use malware to get unauthorized access to your device, they corrupt your files.
- Ransomware is a newly designed malware that is used to extort you financially.
Whereas, spyware is a form of malware that is designed to spy on your computers. Once, the spyware attacks the computer and infects it, then it tracks all your personal information like passwords and your social activities and social accounts. Its only aim is to steal your personal and organizational information.
- Pegasus is one of the most advanced spyware which is developed by the Israeli spyware maker NSO group that can run on mobile phones covering both IOS and Androids.
- Spyware was first reported in 2016. It is also known as Trident Q Suite.
- Last time in 2019, Pegasus spyware was supposedly used to spy on activists, journalists, senior government officials, and lawyers in 20 countries, including India. WhatsApp then sued the Israeli spyware maker NSO Group.
- On July 18, 2021, according to the Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, a French media non-profit, Pegasus spyware may have been used to spy around 300 Indians, including around 40 journalists, scientists, government officials, a constitutional authority, three opposition leaders, and two cabinet ministers in the Central government.
WHAT DOES A PEGASUS SPYWARE DO?
- The Pegasus spyware is used to infiltrate mobile phones, both android, and IOS.
- It can track calls, can read text messages, track locations, collect passwords of the targeted mobile phones.
HOW DOES PEGASUS SPYWARE ATTACK?
- There is nothing specific about how Pegasus spyware attacks our device, but the initial hacks involve any crafted message or iMessage which provides the link to the malicious website. Once clicked, our device is compromised by that malicious software.
- The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto helped WhatsApp to look over the cyber-attack.
- The Citizen Lab noted that the spyware targets a weakness in the WhatsApp VoIP stack that is used for making audio and video calls. Even a missed call permit Pegasus to gain access to the target’s mobile phone or a device.
- There is almost no way to detect if our device is infected by spyware or not because the spyware is very diligent in hiding itself.
