What is Pegasus Spyware? What does it do? All you need to know about the Israeli spyware

The infamous 'pegasus' spyware, developed by Israeli firm NSO is back in news after Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, Subramanian Swamy on Sunday took to social media claiming that at least two international media outlets were likely to publish reports on the alleged hiring of an Israeli firm for snooping Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet colleagues, RSS leaders, judges, and journalists.  

"Rumours to be confirmed and then published" 

In his tweet, Mr Swamy maintained that he has apprehended strong rumours about possible publishing of a report exposing the hiring of an Israeli firm Pegasus, for tapping phones of Modi’s Cabinet Ministers, RSS leaders, SC judges, & journalists this evening IST, by international publications like Washington Post and London Guardian. He said that he will confirm the news and will publish the list later. Derek O'Brien, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP, responded to Swamy's tweet by claiming the phone tapping also targeted "many members of the opposition".

Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram also mentioned pegasus in his tweet in a way that was obscure. 

Interestingly, when asked if he too may have been a target of the alleged snooping, Swamy said that he would move the Supreme Court if he found that he too was a victim of snooping.

It was in 2019 when some WhatsApp users in India including journalists and activists received messages from WhatsApp stating that software had harmed their phones. 

What is Pegasus?

• NSO Group, an Israeli company that specialises in what experts call cyberweapons has developed the software.
• It was believed that Pegasus was targeting iPhone users.
• Several days after its discovery Apple released an updated version of iOS, which reportedly patched the security loophole that Pegasus was used to hack phones. 
• A year later, security researchers found that Pegasus was equally capable of infecting Android phones.
• In 2019, Facebook filed a case against NSO Group for creating Pegasus. The security researchers at Facebook were chasing Pegasus across their systems, and they found that the software was used to infect several journalists and activists in India.
• This was also the time when WhatsApp told the affected Indian users about it through a message.

What could Pegasus do?

If Pegasus has breached your phone, it can potentially spy on you completely and thoroughly. Even encrypted chats like the ones made through WhatsApp are easily accessible to Pegasus. Security researchers have asserted that Pegasus can read messages, track calls, track user activity within apps, gather location data, access video cameras in a phone, or listen through their microphones.

How to protect yourself from such spyware?

Invest in a Security Suite:

Along with your computer hardware and software getting evolved over the years, we also saw the type of privacy threats increase multi-fold. You can get a basic level of security with free security solutions available today but we highly recommend that you invest in a paid security suite. A security suite gives you anti-virus, anti-malware as well as firewall protection.

Start using a VPN: 

A VPN (Virtual Private Network), in simple terms, is a program that lets users connect to the Internet with added security encryption so that the connection is anonymous and secure from hackers or any tracking software. If you are worried about data stored on your device while connecting to the Internet, using a VPN at all times is recommended. 

Follow Good Password Habits: 

Your password is what secures your account and data. First, ensure that you use a strong password; a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols is ideal. Second, do not keep the same password for all your accounts and service logins. lastly, get into a habit of changing your password every 6 months. 

It is worth noting that NSO Group has confirmed the existence of Pegasus. However, the Israeli company has also said that it sells the tools only to governments and that it is not responsible for its misuse.