Project Pegasus coincides with 2019 attack on users

WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart said results from new investigation in NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware coincides with what the app learned from an attack on its users in 2019. Cathcart also questioned NSO’s claim that a list of thousands of phone numbers in the core The survey is an exaggeration, pointing out that the WhatsApp hack targeted 1,400 people. over a two week period.

In an interview published by the Guardian On Saturday, Cathcart said the 2019 attack targeted senior government officials around the world, including national security individuals who are “allies of the United States.” Hacking more than a thousand of its users prompted WhatsApp and Facebook, the app’s parent company, to sue NSO in 2019. The legal claims that other targeted users included lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents and diplomats.

A phone infected with Pegasus spyware can provide uncomfortably detailed insight into a victim’s life. Customers who use it can collect location data, call logs and contacts. The phone’s camera and microphone can also be hijacked to monitor the victim. Pegasus is terribly easy to install and infects phones by tricking an individual to click on a link or by activating without any clicks.

Cathcart said the report of the investigation, which was conducted by a consortium of 17 news agencies, was “very consistent” with what WhatsApp decried in 2019. He added that many targets of the WhatsApp attack had “no business surveillance whatsoever.

“This should be a wake-up call for internet safety… cell phones are either safe for everyone or they are not safe for everyone,” Cathcart told The Guardian, which is part of the consortium. ‘information.

Additionally, the WhatsApp official questioned NSO’s response to the investigation. Israeli security firm called numerous claims in investigation “Unsubstantiated theories”. He classified one of the central pieces of evidence, a leaked list with over 50,000 phone numbers that purported to identify people of interest to NSO customers, as an exaggeration and denied that the list had any relationship with NSO or its customers.

Cathcart, however, pointed out that the attack on WhatsApp targeted 1,400 users over two weeks.

“This tells us that over a longer period, over a period of several years, the number of people attacked is very high,” he said, according to the outlet. “That’s why we thought it was so important to raise concern about this. ”

Cathcart also called for greater accountability from spyware developers, noting that NSO’s government clients are the ones who fund its operations. ONS has describes his clients as 60 intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies in 40 countries. He claims that his clients, whom he does not identify due to confidentiality, are only permitted to use Pegasus to prevent and investigate crime and the fight against terrorism.

Responding to Cathcart’s comments, a spokesperson for NSO told The Guardian that the company aims to create a safer world.

“We are doing our best to help create a safer world,” the spokesperson said. “Does Mr. Cathcart have other alternatives that allow law enforcement and intelligence services to legally detect and prevent malicious acts by pedophiles, terrorists and criminals using end-to-end encryption? If so, we would be happy to hear it.