Pegasus Spyware: Facebook allegedly considered to purchase this to spy on iOS users

April 9, 2020
facebook pegasus spyware malware antimalware mobile apps social media

Facebook is one of the most used Social Media platform worldwide with more than 2.45 Billion monthly active users and counting. The platform also collects personal information on its users once you created an account. This is a known fact and is considered by the US congress as a violation of every individual’s privacy, regardless of their consent. 

Well it seems like Facebook wants to obtain more information from its users, specifically it’s iOS users. An Israel-based technology firm, NSO Group alleged in a recently filed report that two of Facebook’s Executives have offered to purchase their spyware package, Pegasus.  

The Pegasus exploit, as it is popularly known, is a tool developed by NSO Group, that can be installed on remotely targeted iOS device to keep track of its users. These were iPhone and iPad users to be exact.  

The said exploit is capable of reading text messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords, tracing the location of the phone, accessing the target device’s microphone and video camera and gathering information from apps. It has been revealed that Pegasus can’t just target iOS device but also Android devices as well.  

 

Once Pegasus Spyware is installed on an iOS device, the device is automatically jailbroken, followed by the installation of malware on its core systems. The malware will be able to acquire all information and possibly send out the data off to a specific server 

 

However, according to NSO Group, Facebook’s wish to acquire the exploit to collect more information from iOS gadgets is because their own system is not working very well as expected  

Unfortunately for Facebook, NSO Group has declined to sell Pegasus Spyware because they claim they only provide their software to governments and law enforcement 

NSO Group and Facebook are still currently in a legal battle as it can be recalled that Facebook has initiated a suit against NSO Group back in Oct 2019, claiming that WhatsApp had been used to hack a number of activists in India, leading to accusations that the Indian government was involved. 

About the author

Leave a Reply