Pegasus system. How to protect yourself against eavesdropping and surveillance? Advice of a former service agent

Researchers from Citizen Lab, a Canadian research institute at the University of Toronto, confirmed that this software was developed by the Israeli NSO Group associated with former local intelligence services. The code works in a similar way to a virus. It infiltrates your computer or allows you to take control of it.

Pegasus system. How to protect yourself against it?

The operation of Pegasus was introduced by Mariusz Gierszewski, a former secret service agent who remained anonymous. Gierszewski told about the situation when he spoke with another investigative journalist. His phone then heated up so much that the connection had to be terminated quickly in order to put the device aside to “cool down”

Let the Lord answer for himself what could have caused such a sudden draw of power

the agent said.

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When asked what could be done to protect against the system, he said little. that one way is to turn off the phone. Pegasus is said to work in cache, so after turning on the system, you have to reinstall it on your phone. This is confirmed by the interlocutor of Radio Zet:

Please turn off the phone at night. A phone connected to charging at night and still running on home wifi is a dream situation for the services

How does Pegasus work?

The program uses the most sophisticated and previously undiscovered (so-called zero day) vulnerabilities in the victim’s phone software and tries to gain access to all possible modules and smartphone data. He does it in clothes so that the person being followed would not find out about this fact.

The software certainly works on devices with iOS operating systems and, although there are many indications that it may or could also spy on Symbian (Nokia) smartphones and devices.

To infect someone else’s phone it is enough: a notification invisible to the recipient, a short missed call on the WhatsApp messenger, after which the trace disappears immediately or even taking the victim’s phone for some time or approaching her for a moment with a special device. Probably there are or were more methods, but not all of them are known. Certainly, the NSO Group is looking for more and more sophisticated ways to break in.

The possibilities for surveillance and manipulation with the Pegasus are almost endless. The software turns your phone into a real spy machine. It gives access to all information stored in the device’s memory (photos, videos, call history, SMSs, etc.), phone status, and allows you to turn on the microphone or camera at any time, listen in on a conversation, track the location or transmit live image and sound for 24 hours. hours a day.