Pegasus spyware defended by NSO's CEO, as researcher compares it to a nuclear weapon

Posted By TheNewsCommenter: From 9to5mac.com: “Pegasus spyware defended by NSO's CEO, as researcher compares it to a nuclear weapon”. Below is an excerpt from the article.

Pegasus spyware – a zero-click way of remotely hacking an iPhone, and gaining access to all the personal data stored on it – has been defended by the company’s CEO. NSO chief exec said that the company had made “mistakes” in selling it to repressive governments, but claimed that it now sells Pegasus only to countries to whom the US sells weapons.

A security researcher said that the comparison was bogus, stating that a more reasonable comparison would be selling long-range nuclear missiles …

NSO Group makes spyware called Pegasus, which is sold to government and law enforcement agencies. The company purchases so-called zero-day vulnerabilities (ones that are unknown to Apple) from hackers, and its software is capable of mounting zero-click exploits – where no user interaction is required by the target.

In particular, it’s reported that simply receiving a particular iMessage – without opening it or interacting with it in any way – can allow an iPhone to be compromised, with personal data exposed.

NSO sells Pegasus only to governments, but its customers include countries with extremely poor human rights records – with the spyware used against political opponents, human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, and more.

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