New online platform maps Pegasus spread

New online platform maps Pegasus spread

Subject: Science & tech

Context: An online database about the use of the spyware Pegasus was recently launched by the Forensic Architecture, the Amnesty International and the Citizen Lab to document attacks against human rights defenders.

Concept:

About Pegasus

• It is a spyware developed by the Israeli cyber arms firm NSO Group Technologies.
• It mainly uses exploit links, clicking on which installs Pegasus on the target’s phone.
• Citizen Lab which has investigated several cases of Pegasus infections showed through its research that social engineering is a very common strategy to deliver the most sophisticated spyware.
• Pegasus does so by exploiting vulnerabilities in the phone’s operating systems (OS).
• Lookout, which is a cybersecurity company, had partnered with Citizen Lab to investigate Pegasus and found that it had exploited three zero-day vulnerabilities in iOS to successfully attain all the user access of the phone.
• A zero-day vulnerability is a flaw in a software or hardware that is previously unknown to the party responsible.
• Pegasus is state-of-the-art spyware and NSO charges an exorbitant sum for its product and services.

Challenges

• Multiple ways and various technologies like social engineering, exploiting user apps and then using the vulnerabilities make this issue hard to solve.
• The Google Play Store and the Apple App store have thousands of apps with undiscovered vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited by firms such as NSO to target individual users.
• By mainly targeting WhatsApp only the focus is shifted from other potential means through which it can be used further and leave a far bigger impact.
• Lack of awareness and specialists in digital security makes this a vulnerable sector.
• Terrorists and other anti-social elements have started using more of cyberspace which provides them with more getaways.