Spanish Prime Minister Targeted: On May 3, 2022, the Spanish officials revealed that the cellphones of the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister were infected in May 2021 with Pegasus spyware that is only available to government agencies in an unauthorized operation.Īpple iMessages vulnerability: The now-patched Apple iMessages vulnerability (CVE-2021-30860), popularly known as the FORCEDENTRY exploit, was not only used by the NSO group, but was also separately weaponized by another Israeli firm called QuaDream on February 07, 2022. The disclosure comes after an investigation committee was created in April 2022 to look into alleged violations of E.U law following revelations that the company's Pegasus spyware is being used to snoop on the phones of politicians, diplomats, and members of civil society.
Recent Pegasus Activitiesįive Countries Targeted: At least five countries in the region use NSO Group's Pegasus surveillanceware, which is embroiled in a legal battle with the Israeli government. The scammer threatens to leak sensitive videos of the person to business associates and people on the contacts list apart from dark forums, if a sum of money (0.035 bitcoin, approximately $1600 USD) is not paid within a stipulated time frame. On 23 August 2021, a new extortion scam was uncovered that leverages the Pegasus iOS spyware attacks to blackmail people into paying a ransom. Over two years (from 2016 to 2018), the spyware had infected more than 50,000 phones in 45 countries, alongside 8 Indian telecommunication companies such as Bharti Airtel Limited, Hathway IP Over Cable Internet, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). Apple was made aware of the attack and soon discovered three zero-day vulnerabilities ( CVE-2016-4655, CVE-2016-4656, and CVE-2016-4657) chained to exploit the journalist’s phone. The earliest version of the Pegasus spyware was discovered by researchers at CitizenLabs in 2016 after it unsuccessfully infected the phone of a UAE-based journalist, through spear-phishing messages.
The malware infects iPhones and Android devices and enables attackers to record calls, secretly activate microphones, extract messages or photos, and access emails and secondary apps without the user’s knowledge. Pegasus is a highly sophisticated cyber espionage spyware prominently used by governments. On 18 July 2021, the Pegasus spyware, developed by the Israeli Intelligence agency, NSO Group Technologies, was discovered snooping on the smartphones of journalists and politicians from several countries, including India. Vulnerability Chaining | Recent Pegasus Attacks | CVE Associations CSW experts investigated the spyware and found that Pegasus is exploiting three zero-day vulnerabilities.
Have a question? Ask us! Contact Intego via email if you have any questions you want to hear discussed on the podcast, or to provide feedback and ideas for upcoming podcast episodes.An Israeli zero-click cyber-espionage software called Pegasus is being covertly installed on mobile devices (Apple IOS and Android) of politicians, journalists, anti-regime activists, etc.
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Mozilla Ending Support for Firefox Lockwise Password Manager in December.State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware I Mailed an AirTag and Tracked Its Progress Here’s What Happened.Apple’s AirTags Can Enable Stalkers and Abusers.“I am hacker NSO Group,” New Email Scam Leverages Controversial Pegasus Malware.Mac and iOS Keychain Tutorial: How Apple’s iCloud Keychain Works.How to Use a Security Key to Protect Sensitive Online Accounts.Intego Mac Security Podcast New Scam Emails Purport to Come from NSO Group Hacker – Intego Mac Podcast Episode 217Īmazon’s AWS outage causes havoc with the internet a simple mistake can lock you out of your Google account for 48 hours and we discuss a new scam email purporting to come from an NSO Group hacker.