However, several publicly reported cases involving journalists have indicated its spyware is being used by intelligence agencies far more widely, and unscrupulously. In response to these revelations, NSO Group has repeatedly denied allegations its technology has been used to target civil society and has stressed it only sells its products to “government intelligence and law enforcement agencies” for the “sole purpose” of investigating suspected terrorists and other serious criminals. Many of these were autocratic states with poor human rights records where independent media is heavily restricted, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Rwanda, and others where crackdowns on independent media were actively underway, such as Turkey and Egypt. In a groundbreaking 2018 report, cybersecurity research laboratory Citizen Lab published evidence that the spyware may have been used in 45 counties in a two-year period between 20. However, over the past half-decade Pegasus has secretly been used by government agencies to try and snoop on dozens of journalists in countries around the world. The dangers of such technology have made international headlines in recent weeks after it was alleged Pegasus had been used by Saudi Crown Price Mohammed Bin Salman to hack the personal phone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. Hatice Cengiz (R), the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and Jeff Bezos (L), CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post. It can even turn on the user’s microphone or camera and access maps to trace the user’s location, travel history and home address. When installed, it can target private data, monitor SMS, calls and encrypted chats, and collect passwords for social media accounts.
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Developed by private Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group, Pegasus is a mobile surveillance tool which targets an individual’s phone and infects its operating system without the user’s knowledge. Pegasus spyware While various spyware tools exist in the global market, one in particular has faced heavy scrutiny in recent months. In this report, IPI documents the use of such spyware and speaks to affected journalists, researchers and rights groups to highlight the threats such technologies pose to the profession and to media freedom more widely in an increasingly digitalized world. While this form of targeted surveillance is believed to still be limited on a global scale, major revelations in recent years have laid bare the increasing use of these tools against bloggers, activists and journalists, in democracies and dictatorships alike – already with deadly consequences.
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Originally designed for criminal or intelligence operations, these privately developed technologies are increasingly being used by state agencies to spy on critical and investigative reporters and monitor private communications.
![pegasus hacking software pegasus hacking software](https://i.gadgets360cdn.com/large/pegasus_project_amnesty_1626671488327.jpg)
In the past five years a growing trend has emerged of autocratic governments around the world using sophisticated spyware tools purchased from private Western companies to snoop on journalists.