Pegasus also exploits bugs in iMessage, giving it backdoor access to millions of iPhones. The spyware can also be installed over a wireless transceiver (radio transmitter and receiver) located near a target.

Researchers at Canadian cybersecurity organization The Citizen Lab first encountered Pegasus on a smartphone of human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor.

Spyware is any malicious software designed to enter your computer device, gather your data, and forward it to a third party without your consent.

Pegasus, developed by NSO Group, is perhaps the most powerful spyware ever created. It is designed to infiltrate smartphones — Android and iOS — ...

A single license, which can be used to infect several smartphones, can cost up to Rs 70 lakh. According to a 2016 price list, NSO Group charged its customers $650,000 to infiltrate 10 devices, plus an installation fee of $500,000.

WhatsApp revealed that journalists and human rights activists in India had been targets of surveillance by operators using Pegasus.

Once installed on a phone, Pegasus can intercept and steal more or less any information on it, including SMSes, contacts, call history, calendars, emails, and browsing histories. It can use your phone’s microphone to record calls and other conversations, secretly film you with its camera, or trac...

The Citizen Lab published a report that identified 45 countries in which Pegasus was being used. As with the latest revelations, the list included India.

The Pegasus Project, an international investigative journalism effort, revealed that various governments used the software to spy on government officials, opposition politicians, journalists, activists, and many others. It said the Indian government used it to spy on around 300 people between 201...

Pegasus exploits undiscovered vulnerabilities, or bugs, in Android and iOS. This means a phone could be infected even if it has the latest security patch installed.

A previous version of the spyware — from 2016 — infected smartphones using a technique called “spear-fishing”: text messages o...

By 2019, Pegasus could infiltrate a device with a missed call on WhatsApp and could even delete the record of this missed call, making it impossible for the user to know they had been targeted. In May that year, WhatsApp said Pegasus had exploited a bug in its code to infect more than 1,400 Andro...