Dharamshala, 23^rd July: Pegasus is military-grade spyware developed by the NSO group with the stated goal of supporting national governments and law enforcement in the prevention and investigation of terrorism, criminality, and public safety threats. The NSO Group, based in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, Israel, was created in 2010 by Niv Carmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio as a private Israeli cyberweapons organization. As of 2017, it employed almost 500 people and reported a 2020 EBITDA of USD 99 million, accounting for nearly 40% of revenue.

The initial attack surface accessible to distribute Pegasus in any victim device is as large as the device vulnerability exposure, which includes programs, permissions provided, and hardware. Pegasus operators can use a variety of Operating Systems to target a wide range of hardware and application vulnerabilities, including both Android and iOS devices. A high level of cyber hygiene, awareness, and operational security would be required for prevention and mitigation.

The initial attack surface accessible to distribute Pegasus in any victim device is as large as the device vulnerability exposure, which includes programs, permissions provided, and hardware. Pegasus operators can use a variety of Operating Systems to target a wide range of hardware and application vulnerabilities, including both Android and iOS devices. A high level of cyber hygiene, awareness, and operational security would be required for prevention and mitigation.

The Pegasus Project, a collaboration of journalists from 17 media organizations in ten countries, coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based media non-profit with technical support from Amnesty International reported on July 18, 2021, that they had obtained over 50,000 phone numbers of potential targets of the NSO Group, an Israeli technology firm. Journalists, activists, academics, lawyers, politicians/government officials, businesses, doctors, prosecutors, and friends and relatives of those who appear to be of interest to NSO clients are among those on the list.

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