Pegasus

How a Spy in Our Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published Jan. 17, 2023 by Henry Holt and Co..

ISBN:
9781250858696

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5 stars (1 review)

NSO’s Pegasus system has not been limited to catching bad guys. It’s also been used to spy on hundreds, and maybe thousands, of innocent people around the world: heads of state, diplomats, human rights defenders, political opponents, and journalists.

Pegasus is a look inside the monthslong worldwide investigation, triggered by a single spectacular leak of data, and a look at how an international consortium of reporters and editors revealed that cyber intrusion and cyber surveillance are happening with exponentially increasing frequency across the globe, at a scale that astounds.

4 editions

Creepy Cybersurveillance

5 stars

The journalists who wrote this book did for cybersurveillance, what the Panama Papers investigation did for wealthy tax cheats. In both cases, a consortium of journalists got a treasure trove of data from an anonymous source and went to work with fellow reporters around the world. In the case of Pegasus, we are talking about the software sold by Israeli company NSO to governments. Pegasus, once it infects someone's phone, can basically access all the data, media, contacts. It can also turn on the phone mic and camera and record private conversations. NSO advertised it as designed to thwart terrorist and criminal organizations, but of course, Pegasus was used to by questionable governments (Morocco, Mexico, Azerbaijan, India, among others) to spy on journalists, political opponents, human right activists... and Jamal Khashoggi (and his wife, fiancee, and son), but also heads of state (such as Macron and almost his entire cabinet). …