Israeli surveillance ware vendor NSO Group admitted to the European Union lawmakers that its Pegasus tool was used by at least five countries in the region. Pegasus is secretly installed on a smartphone by exploiting unknown vulnerabilities in software known as zero-days to capture full control of the device and collect sensitive data.
A special inquiry committee was launched recently to investigate alleged breaches of E.U. law following revelations that the company’s Pegasus spyware is being used to snoop on phones belonging to politicians, diplomats, and civil society members.
Once installed, the spyware provides support for a broad range of capabilities that allows the operator to track the victim's whereabouts, eavesdrop on conversations, and exfiltrate messages from even encrypted apps like WhatsApp.
The European Parliament said, “The committee is going to look into existing national laws regulating surveillance, and whether Pegasus spyware was used for political purposes against, for example, journalists, politicians and lawyers.”
NSO Group claimed it only supplies the software to government customers to tackle terrorism, drug trafficking, and serious crime, but evidence has shown widespread misuse of the software to keep tabs on political opponents, critics, activists, journalists, lawyers across the world.
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