Imagine you had the secret contact number of everyone and could read every single chat and know the secrets of prime ministers and bank owners, how would it be? It would make an impregnable fortress around you where you would feel at the top of the world. Knowledge is power and thus it would be better if you could know everything. You must have seen these things in movies where they have a chip that is inserted or tracked inside the phones of powerful people and you can know the secrets that can, if disclosed to the enemy, destroy nations and create wars. Well, what if we tell you that something like that exists and it’s no big secret that it is being done by some governments and some people who are tracking powerful people around the world and snooping on their phones? Would you believe us?
Even if you don’t believe us, you would be surprised if you even Google the term ‘Pegasus’. Unfortunately, something like this has been going on in our world and we have no idea as to who is pulling all these strings. Don’t worry, we have compiled a full report on this matter and everything would be mentioned here. Firstly, let us understand what the news is all about. We know that although Pakistan isn’t a great country and is still in the developing stage with all the hatred bred inside, with the constant war for a piece of land with India, it still has huge diplomacy to play in the politics of the world. Besides that, it is a nuclear-powered country and it does have nuclear bombs which makes it a strong country to deal with.
But, the problem here is that, not the MLAs or CM of the states or something, the prime minister of Pakistan is being tracked. Yes, it is confirmed by our resources that the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan is on the list of the people who are being spied upon. Now it might seem petty to us that it’s just the phone which is being chipped but imagine the consequences if the information of the prime minister of Pakistan is kept on sale in the black market under the dark web. This is something that would utterly destroy the peace that we uphold among nations after the cold war and a third world war could break out. Not only him, many other notable heads of the state which we won’t name all of them because our sources have yet to confirm, but they are being targeted and are on the list. The list which we are talking about so much is the one who is being kept under surveillance.
This means that everything from waking up in the morning to sleeping in at night has been monitored and data has been gathered by the cellphones of these people. This is an important matter concerning international security. The list, the surveillance which is being done, has been termed as ‘Project Pegasus’. If you don’t know the names of Niv Carmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio, then you need to wake up and look at what is going on in this world. These are three men who founded the NSO group of companies that developed the software. The software is so dangerous that it can be regarded as the most powerful virus ever created for surveillance. It is capable of targeting anyone and everyone once the bug is installed and it can be used from anywhere in the world.
Let’s first look into the details of what Pegasus is. Pegasus is the name of the software that is developed by the NSO. It is spyware. Spywares are a kind of bug that when it is attached to your device, would spy on your phone and give your data away. It is by far the strongest spyware developed by anyone and it is one of the few things that has been discovered which has a potential like this. Remember Ramsey from the Fast And Furious series? Exactly like that, this software can not only track you but also uncover anything and everything. It is the smartest spyware and it is like a small file that you won’t even notice. Once attached to your phone, it would copy data such as your contact information, your messages and your location and send it to a third party application. It can turn any device into a surveillance system.
Think like this, to track your location, you need to have a tracker on yourself. To have your chats, they need to access the database. To record your voice, they need to have a voice recorder or a microchip attached to them. What’s something that is with you all the time and can never be hidden? What’s something that you absolutely trust combined with your password or fingerprint lock? It’s your cellphone. And regardless of whether your phone is rooted as in the toughest android firewall or you have the strongest privacy settings of an iPhone, for Pegasus, this is absolutely nothing. It can easily penetrate any operating system and can transmit data even if you have the latest security updates. Regardless of the countless malware removing software and data breach finder apps that you can find, Pegasus can bypass everything.
Now it isn’t something cheap that can be used by anyone in this world. The company has marketed the software stating that it could be used to spy on criminals and mass murderers or people associated with terrorism. Now, this is something that can be used for good purposes that are being mentioned in the advertisement. Not only that, the company has a strict rule that it gives the owner to only governments and not any other company or an individual. The price of this software is also something to be coughed at. If you consider what is being offered, the price won’t be much to you. It comes with a 10 device package for up to 650 thousand dollars and an installation fee of about 500 thousand dollars. Half a million to spy on someone worth billions is something that is like the wings of a fly.
Now onto something more serious, we don’t know what the intentions are of companies like these and we don’t know what the intentions are of the head of government organisations but clearly, the software wasn’t being used to spy on criminals but rather than on mass surveillance. An international news agency stumbled upon this back in 2016 where they found out that a Muslim journalist is being tracked back from Israel by the NSO company. On further investigation, it was found out that the governments who buy software such as these spy on many journalists reporting against them. This was something that couldn’t be just skipped. It is great international news. The privacy of leaders is at risk and we still don’t know who does and who doesn’t have the password to the prime minister’s phone.
And this isn’t the end, there is much more to this. Although Pakistan is a very unstable country, something like this should at least knock some sense of privacy among the leaders. They should investigate this matter and check where the leak happened and this should send a shiver down the spines of all the world leaders. Yes, you read it correctly. All the world leaders. We said there would be something more than this right? Here it is. It’s not just Pakistan but even the prime ministers of France, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco have their phones bugged by this software. Don’t be shocked just yet as there is a lot more than this. To consider that France of all countries would suffer an attack like this is frightening to even think about this.
Of course, these leaders won’t just hand their phones for manual inspection for military-grade pieces of equipment as to whether how they react to this, or whether this is true for them or not, but the list which contains the name of all those who are being kept under surveillance do contain the name if these prime ministers. Isn’t this sinister enough? Wait there’s more. Around 50,000 people are being kept under strict surveillance by this device. Nobody knows whether their phone is safe or not. The surprising thing about this is that many middle-eastern countries have bought this software to spy on the competitors of the ruling party as well as those who are going against the government. This includes party MLA’s and political leaders including journalists and activists.
It is disheartening to say that India is among those countries which have been tracking their political leaders and journalists between 2017-2019. This isn’t some speculation and it has been confirmed by our sources, informed by many international agencies that India has taken an active part in the surveillance of the opposition party leaders. Another shocking fact about this is that Amazon was hosting NSO servers and giving them a place to be on the internet. When questioned, they denied the claim and said that they had broken off with NSO after they found out about the security issues.