The Pegasus Project report, which was published on 18 July, 2021, in 17 media organisations worldwide after 80 journalists’ investigations, is alarming for individual privacy and security.
According to the report, NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware, founded by three Israeli ex-military citizens, works by sending a link to victims and tampers details with a zero-click Trojan virus hacking technique.
In this, hackers just give a ring to the victim by using the WhatsApp call feature. The phone is hacked whether the victim replies or not. It does not matter if it’s an android or iPhone. The hacker hacks your phone then deletes the call log so you can’t get any details regarding tampering in your mobile.
According to the report, 50,000 phone numbers were hacked by the NSO for their clients. NSO officially said that they give their services only to government officials to prevent terrorist activities and for security concerns. But according to the report, Pegasus Spyware was used by hundreds of business executives, NGO employees, union officials, government officials, cabinet ministers, presidents, and prime ministers.
With this zero-click hacking technique, hackers can call anyone, chat with anyone in the place of the victim and turn on audio and video cameras anytime they want.
This type of tech hacking discovery is against the law and ethically not good. If these types of spyware discoveries get in the hands of terrorist organisation’s it will create blunders. I don’t know where these discoveries are going to stop.
As a person with a technical background, when I think whether it is possible to blow up a battery by heating it up when a victim is talking to someone by using these hacking discoveries, my mind says yes it is, not currently, but technically it can be possible in future. For those people who have already developed a zero-click technique, it is not a big deal.
That’s why I am saying that this is alarming for security concerns. As individuals, I, you and everyone should take these discoveries seriously and protect ourselves. World leaders should behave responsibly to stop encouraging these types of practices.
The United Nations should take these types of issues into their concern and find a proper system and laws to deal with and regulate these practices. I hope the world recognises this concern in time; otherwise, it will lead to disaster.