Pegasus: How a Spy in Our Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy

An international consortium of journalists exposes a shocking cybersecurity threat in this riveting investigation. Richard and Rigaud, the founder and editor-in-chief, respectively, of Forbidden Stories, a nonprofit committed to pursuing and publishing the unfinished work of reporters who have been murdered, jailed, or otherwise threatened, explain that in 2020, their organization and Amnesty International received a leaked list of 50,000 cell phone numbers selected for possible targeting by Pegasus, a cybersurveillance system capable of hijacking any mobile device connected to Wi-Fi “without raising the tiniest of red flags.” NSO Group, the Israeli company that developed Pegasus, claimed the software was only licensed by sovereign states and “used for law enforcement and intelligence purposes,” but investigators eventually discovered that the list included phone numbers belonging to human rights advocates, nearly 200 journalists, French president Emmanuel Macron, and Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, among others. Richard and Rigaud briskly detail how reporters and cybersecurity experts determined which devices had actually been attacked or infected, debunking NSO cofounder Shalev Hulio’s repeated claims that Pegasus had not been used against Khashoggi or his loved ones. Lucid explanations of technical and legal matters and vivid profiles of crusading journalists enrich this cautionary tale of technology run amok. (Jan.)