Pegasus spyware hacking: Reports show latest iPhones with iOS 14 can be hacked with zero-click iMessage exploit

NSO Group's Pegasus software was used to snoop on iPhones of high-profile entities and Apple's zero-click exploit in iMessage made it easier.

Pegasus spyware-making Israeli company, NSO Group, has found itself in dire straits again. The software was used to snoop on a big set of people, as their mobile numbers were found in a leaked database. NSO Group’s spyware is already notorious for giving backdoors to the mobile phones of the targeted entities. Both Android and iPhone are the targets, but the latter is far easier to be put on surveillance through Pegasus. And, according to a report, Apple’s zero-click exploit on iMessage made this job even easier. Amnesty International, which unearthed the leaked database in collaboration with Pegasus Project, which is a consortium of news organisations that have seen the leaked database, has refuted NSO Group’s claims that Pegasus is used to investigate crime and terrorism related cases and that it does not leave any traces. Amnesty International’s Security Lab carried out an in-depth forensic analysis of several mobile phones of human rights defenders and journalists from around the world to find out that Pegasus’s surveillance is not just a violation of user privacy, it also goes against human rights.