Pegasus is a nuclear weapon in the hands of the services. “Total Surveillance Tool”

Pegasus is advanced spyware created by the Israeli company NSO Group, founded in 2010 by former members of the Israel Intelligence Corps. Theoretically, it works similarly to typical spyware applications that are used to steal information from smartphones or computers. However, Pegasus is definitely more effective.

How does Pegasus work?

There are many ways to infect a given device with Pegasus. This can be done, for example, by sending a message with a link to the victim’s phone, an e-mail with an infected document, or even a simple push notification.

Clicking on a link, opening a file or displaying a notification may result in your phone being infected and then accessed by services using Pegasus. Until 2016, sending a suspicious message to a potential victim was the only way to launch the spy machine on his phone, but this option is still sometimes used today.

The phishing method is not always effective, because not everyone falls for such a less sophisticated scam, which is why the newer version of Pegasus can infect the victim’s phone without any interaction or knowledge on his part. An example method reported in the media is sending a notification invisible to the recipient.

Before 2019, Pegasus also used a vulnerability in the WhatsApp messenger, which allowed for “entering the device” by making a call (so that it would not be answered by a potential victim) and then deleting the missed call notification from the phone. In July 2021, it was revealed that Pegasus could also get into iPhones through a vulnerability in the iMessage app. Even newer methods are, of course, kept top secret.

“It is a tool of such total surveillance that it causes the object of control to be every person in the surveillance environment. Every place where they are, every random conversation on the street, in a store, in church, during confession,” she said in 2022 during a meeting of the Senate extraordinary committee, prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek, who was herself a victim of Pegasus surveillance.

How does Pegasus spy on our smartphone?

Pegasus looks for vulnerabilities in the phone’s software and tries to gain access to all possible modules and data of the smartphone. It does this “quietly” so that the person being tracked does not find out about this fact. Pegasus certainly works on devices with iOS and Android operating systems, but there are many indications that it can or could also spy on Symbian (Nokia) phones and BlackBerry devices. What’s more, it also works with smartphones that have the latest security patches installed.

What can services using Pegasus have access to?

If the attempt to gain access to the phone is successful, the services can turn the victim’s smartphone into a digital spy. Pegasus gives you access to all information stored on the device (photos, videos, call history, SMS, etc.), phone status, and allows you to turn on the microphone or camera at any time, eavesdrop on the conversation, track the location, and even transmit live images and sound 24 hours a day.

And this is without any information that could arouse the suspicion of the phone’s owner (maybe apart from slightly faster energy consumption) or even the telecommunications company whose client is the victim. This is one of the main advantages of Pegasus – it allows you to steal very valuable information and eavesdrop on even very technologically aware citizens, so that this fact does not come to light long after the attack (or at all).

How did Pegasus end up in the hands of the Polish services?

Rumors that the spy of all spies was in the hands of the Central Anticorruption Bureau appeared in 2018. The tvn24.pl portal reported then that the services had a new phone and computer surveillance system purchased from the Justice Fund, from which the state was supposed to support crime victims.

In January 2022, NIK disclosed invoices for the “purchase of special technology measures to detect and prevent crime” for a total amount of PLN 25 million. The purchase of the software in January 2022 was also confirmed by PiS president Jarosław Kaczyński.

Pegasus is a program used by services fighting crime and corruption in many countries. Its creation and use is the result of technological change, the development of encrypted messengers, which cannot be read using old monitoring systems.

– Kaczyński said in an interview with the weekly “Sieci”.

Who was to be eavesdropped using Pegasus in Poland?

In December 2021, the Associated Press revealed that Pegasus was used, among others, for surveillance of attorney Roman Giertych, who represented leading opposition politicians. The software was also intended to be used to spy on prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek, who opposed the purges in the Polish justice system, the head of Agrounia Michał Kołodziejczak and journalist Tomasz Szwejgiert.

Perhaps the most famous case was the surveillance of opposition politician Krzysztof Brejza at the time when he headed the electoral staff of the Civic Coalition. His phone was attacked with Pegasus 33 times.

The media described that the devices of employees of the Supreme Audit Office were attacked with Pegasus over 6,000 times. In total, the system was infected with approximately 500 devices over two years.

that PiS has a list of politicians from this party who were allegedly under surveillance by the secret services when they were supervised by Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik. It includes, among others: Ryszard Terlecki, Marek Suski, Krzysztof Sobolewski, Ryszard Czarnecki, Adam Bielan, Marek Kuchciński

“We do not have the tools to verify with certainty whether the CBA wiretapped PiS politicians and hacked their phones with the Pegasus system. However, we are certain that this list and the fear that it may be authentic are sowing confusion in the ranks of the United Right,” Jacek Gądek emphasized. .

Can Pegasus be detected?

Detecting Pegasus is an impossible task for the average smartphone user. However, this can be done by specialists from private companies – for example Apple (the manufacturer of iPhones) – and notify their client about it.

This is how the hacking of prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek’s phone was revealed. Traces of attacks are also detected by, for example, Citizen Lab, a special research unit of the University of Toronto, after the phone is submitted for expert examination. This is how the attacks on Roman Giertych and Krzysztof Brejza were supposed to come to light.

Can you protect yourself from Pegasus?

Can the average citizen somehow protect himself against eavesdropping? The simplest answer to this question is: no. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that spying using Pegasus costs a lot, because NSO Group charges a lot for using the best software of this type today. According to various unofficial information, each burglary costs at least PLN 25,000. dollars.

For this reason, the services are not interested in spying on the average person who does not have any valuable data in this way. The authorities have other, easier and cheaper ways to reach such a person. However, people such as politicians, journalists, social activists and other citizens performing functions that do not please the authorities may be afraid of Pegasus attacks.

What does NSO itself say about Pegasus?

NSO Group declares that Pegasus was created to “help government agencies investigate and prevent terrorism and crime to save thousands of lives around the world.” Among the groups that the company believes should be targeted by authorities using Pegasus are “terrorists, drug traffickers, pedophiles and other criminals.” The company’s website also states that intelligence and security agencies have problems fighting crime and finding evidence because members of such groups “use technologies that ensure their privacy.”

The problem is that – as pointed out by organizations that care about human rights, e.g. Amnesty International – it sometimes happens that Pegasus is also used to surveil, among others, journalists, politicians, oppositionists and human rights defenders. It can be said that in some, less democratic countries, it quickly became a remedy for the most unruly citizens.