Pegasus Spyware | How Pegasus hacks your phone? | Citizen lab nso

 Hello, friends! Come, let's talk about the Pegasus Scandal. This alleged scam is so dangerous and outrageous, a scam of this level has never been seen before anywhere in the world. Most people cannot understand the impact it has on the world. France's President, Macron, changed his phone ever since his name was on this list. Investigations have begun in many countries across the globe. By various investigative agencies. But in India, our India media is doing its best to dress it up as an 'International Plot' and then assure the people that it's insignificant and sweep the story under the rug. Come, let's find out what actually happened.

 

First, What does the word 'Pegasus' mean?

 

 

 This word is from Greek mythology, friends. A mythological white horse with wings. It was called Pegasus. It looked somewhat like this. But today, in our modern world, Pegasus is a spyware. Spyware are dangerous software viruses that secretly get into your computer or smartphone. And give your data to other people. They can access your camera. They may even record your video through the device's camera. Or any other data like your WhatsApp chats or photos. They can extract all to give them to someone else.

 

 

 

 Basically, spying on you is what these spyware do. So the next question is How do spyware like Pegasus enter your phone?

 

 Earlier, you would've gotten a link through SMS or on WhatsApp. Once you'd click on the link, your phone could've been infected. But today, they've improved their technology so much that you don't even have to click on the link. They'll send you a WhatsApp message or leave a missed call on your number. Even if you don't receive the call, the Pegasus spyware can still infect your phone. And that's why it's so dangerous and shocking. They just need to know the phone number. It can attack both Android and iOS devices. And once it has infected the phone, it can do virtually anything. Reading your WhatsApp chats and SMSs. Recording your calls. Monitoring the numbers you've called. Accessing your photos. Getting your location by tracking your GPS. Secretly turning on your phone's camera. Or your phone's microphone. To record you secretly. All your contact details and passwords it can access everything. The Pegasus spyware is developed by an Israeli company. The NSO Group. The full form of NSO is this. Basically, the names of the three founders of this company.

 

 

The biggest question on your mind may be that Why was such a spyware created? What was the need for it?

 

 

 NSO claims that they created Pegasus so that Government Intelligence and Law Enforcement agencies can use this. To fight against crime and terrorism. For example, the Mexican government has said that they used the Pegasus spyware to capture the Mexican drug lord El Chappo. You'd praise spyware. That it is a brilliant spyware. It can be used to round up all the terrorists and criminals of the world. That the entire world would become a better place because of this spyware. This spyware would seem like the white horse that has come from the heavens to purge the world of crime and terrorism. But here comes the twist in the story now. Allegedly, this recent leak also included the name of a Mexican journalist. The Mexican government has allegedly spied on a Mexican journalist using this spyware. That Mexican journalist had exposed several corruption scams in Mexico. Later, this Mexican journalist was murdered.

 

 

 

Apart from this, do you remember the case, friends, where a Washington Post journalist, Jamal was murdered allegedly by the Saudi Arabian government?

 

 

In that case, too, it's now revealed that Pegasus spyware was actually installed a few days before the murder. On the phone of the journalist's wife. Additionally, NSO is also named when allegedly, the Saudi Arabian Prince had apparently hacked the phone of Amazon chief, Jeff Bezos. This is also in the reports. If we talk about the current exposé, friends, it has been revealed by a France based NGO, Forbidden Stories. They had technical support from the Amnesty International team. They have revealed a 'leaked list' with more that50,000 phone numbers. And they claim that the phone numbers belong to the people who have already been spied on using Pegasus or are the potential targets of being spied on in the future. More than 80 journalists. 17 distinct media organizations. Present in 10 different countries. All of them have collaborated in the latest exposé. These include some major media houses like Reuters, Guardian, Washington Post Süddeutsche Zeitung from Germany.Le Monde from France. Haaretz from Israel. Proceso from Mexico. Direkt36 from Hungary. Amnesty International has publically revealed the methodology of this project. If you have the technical knowledge in this field, then you can check it out,the link will be in the description below. This methodology was also independently reviewed. By The Citizen Lab, based in Canada. And they found that the methodology used to find out the Pegasus infections was absolutely correct. Forbidden Stories and its media partners have identified NSO clients in 11 countries. And I'd like to show you the list of the countries. Next to the names of these countries, I've put their ranks on the Democracy Index in brackets. Don't miss them. Compared to the other countries, India has the highest rank on the Democracy Index. Of these 50,000 phone numbers in the list,1,000 have already been identified. And their phones have been sent for forensic examination. Not all of them agreed to get it done. Some people agreed to send their phones for forensic examination. There it's tested to see if there are actually any traces of the Pegasus software on the phones. To be protected from such Pegasus level hacking to do something at an individual level, is next to impossible. The only thing you can do is don't share your phone number  with people other than your very close friends or family members. Which is practically not possible for anyone to practice.

 

 

 

But in day-to-day lives, against most of the attacks on your privacy you can be protected by using a VPN. VPN helps to hide your location...

 

 

 

Dawood Ibrahim, Hafiz Saeed, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya. Does the list include the names of these people?

 

 

 

 

 No. These are the people who are potentially considered to be criminals. You may think that the government had used the software to spy on these people. But NO. Of the names in this list, most are journalists, academics, lawyers, politicians and government officials Even the judges of the Supreme Court. In fact, even the Head of States of countries. As I said, French President Macron's name was also in it. Which is why he changed his phone. Because, possibly, the Pegasus spyware was found in his phone. Talking about India, this list had the names of 300 Indians. Who were allegedly spied on between 2017 and 2019. Remember this time frame, it's very important to understand the chronology. Rahul Gandhi and two of his close advisors are among the major names. Who were discussing the strategies for the 2019 general elections during this time frame. Rahul Gandhi has openly claimed that his phone was tapped. And this software was in his phone. The second major name is of the election strategist Prashant Kishor. Who, in 2018, had said that he would not work with the BJP for the 2019 elections. Prashant Kishor has said that he had to change his phone five times because he had guessed that his phone was under spy attacks.

 

 

You'd wonder how can anyone know this?

 

 I'd like to take the example of Jeff Bezos. It was when his phone started consuming an unreasonably large amount of data. Prashant Kishor may have guessed it by something similar. His phone consuming an unusually large amount of data. Or the battery draining fast without any reason. The third big name is Abhishek Banerjee. He is the nephew of the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The next big name is of the former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's personal secretary. After this, the former VHP Head Pravin Togadia. He had left VHP in 2018 and laid several accusations against the Modi government openly and publicly. Additionally, it also includes the names of some of our Union Ministers like our new IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw. Actually, he was elected by the BJP in 2019 for the Rajya Sabha from Odisha. Moving on from the politicians and talking about the bureaucrats. You'd recall the CBI versus CBI drama a few years ago. Our former CBI Chief Alok Verma's name is also on this list. As well as the name of the Senior CBI OfficerRakesh Asthana. Also the name of our former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa. Who had the courage during the 2019 election campaigning to say that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah had violated the Model Code of Conduct. Among the journalists, it has the name of the freelance journalist Rohini Singh. If you remember, she broke the story on Jay Shah. How the profits of Jay Shah's companyhad increased 16,000 times. Within 1 year. Additionally, Swati Chaturvedi, who wrote the book on the BJP IT cell. Former Indian Express editor Sushant Singh And India Today journalist Sandeep. Who was covering the Rafale controversy in detail. Is also on the list. Another interesting name of The Hindu's journalist Vijaita Singh who broke an interesting piece of news in 2017. This report stated that the National Security Council Secretariat had a tenfold increase in the budget within a year. Earlier the Government used to allocate ₹33 crores to it. And now it's being allocated ₹333 crores. Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan had made an allegation that the increase in the budget by ₹300 crores was used by the government to buy this Pegasus software. The next year, the budget had reached ₹800 crores. The government has not responded to this specific allegation yet. If you don't know, the cost of buying the Pegasus spyware is very high even for the Governments. It apparently costs approximately ₹4 crores for installing the software. And ₹5 crores if you have to install it on 10 phones. So just installing it on 10 smartphones will cost ₹5 crores. I'm putting up the names of the other important journalists and activists that were on the list. If I mention all of them, it'll take a lot of time. We can make a 3-hour long documentary on it. But another name on the listthat I'd like to tell you about in detail Is of a staff member of the Supreme Court. The same staff member who made allegations of sexual harassment against the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.  Apparently, several of her family members were the potential targets of surveillance. Just imagine it, friends. A spyware that was apparently created to spy on criminals and terrorists Is now being used to spy on opposition politicians, journalists, activists, former Supreme Court judges and eventhe Election Commissioner.

 

Is it fair to do so in a democratic country?

 

 

 

Absolutely not! Such things happen in dictatorships. So what was the response after this big reveal? Of other people and the Government? The Congress Chief Spokesperson has alleged that the Modi government had used Pegasus to spy on some MLAs in Karnataka. And to overthrow the Congress government in Karnataka. RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav says "Welcome to Orwellian India!" This is a reference to the book 1984 an amazing book written by George Orwell. on surveillance state. Read it if you haven't already. Aam Aadmi Party MP, Sanjay Singh explained the chronology. "The Government gets a clean chit for the Rafale deal in November 2019. In April, the woman who had made allegations of sexual harassment against CJI Gogoi, had her phone hacked. Ranjan Gogoi should be arrested and questioned. He should be asked if there was any blackmail involved." In April 2019, allegations of sexual harassment are made against CJI Ranjan Gogoi. Then the woman who had accused him has her phone tapped. And in November 2019, CJI Gogoi, gives a clean chit to the government in the Rafale case. Press Club of India says that for the first time in the country's history, spying was attempted on all the pillars of democracy. Judiciary, Parliamentarians, media, executives, ministers an attempt to spy on all of them was carried out. Dainik Bhaskar newspaper ran a detailed report on this Pegasus project on the front page. Explaining all the new developments in detail. And a few days later, there is an income tax raid on this newspaper.

 

Is it only a coincidence?

 

 

 Most of the opposition and independent media are saying the same thing. That there needs to be an investigation into it. And that investigation should be lead by the Supreme Court instead of the Government. In Algeria, a probe has already been initiated into the Pegasus scandal. Another probe to investigate it has been initiated in France. It has also begun in Hungary. Even Israel has launched a commission to investigate Pegasus spyware. But the Indian government? The Indian government has not initiated any investigation. The Indian government is busy claiming that it is an international plot to malign us. On social media, the Modi supporters claim that all the foreign organizations have come together to prevent India's progress. Because the release of the exposé was timed just before the Parliament session began. It was done so that the Modi government couldn't work properly. But think about it logically. This exposé involves so many countries. So many countries have already begun investigations. Still, they believe this is an international plot against Modi. As if France's President Macron is stupid that he changed his smartphone just because of a plot against Modi. In response, our IT minister has said that just because someone's name or phone number is on this list, it doesn't mean that the person has definitely been spied on. This is technically the truth. But it is not an answer to these allegations. Because even Amnesty had said this. They've said that some on the list have been spied on and an attempt to spy on some were made. And some are potential targets who may get spied on in the future. It's not being claimed that all 50,000 numbers have definitely being spied on. This is the point that our pliable media is trying to twist and present on television Claiming that Amnesty has taken a U-turn. Saying that the scandal isn't as significant or severe as is being portrayed. Newslaundry has published an amazing article about how facts are being twisted and presented. Overall, the conclusion is very simple. If the Modi government believes that they have not spied on anyone unethically, then why are they not initiating an investigation? Are the other countries fools to investigate the Pegasus scandal? Does the Indian government, i.e. the Modi government think they are special enough that even though other countries are opting to investigate they want us Indians to blindly believe in them without any investigation. Secondly, this isn't an issue of BJP versus Opposition. If you're a BJP supporter who's blindly trusting the Modi government in this issue then you're deceiving yourself. It concerns us as a country. And if you're really concerned about the country, Then you'd demand an investigation into the scandal too. Thank you very much!

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