"Lawful intercept" Pegasus spyware found deployed in 45 countries

[silversurfer]

Security researchers have found evidence that a piece of malware peddled as "lawful intercept" software to government agencies has been deployed against victims located in 45 countries, a number that far outweights the number of known operators, meaning that some of them are conducting illegal cross-border surveillance.

The malware can operate on both Android and iOS devices, albeit it's been mostly spotted in campaigns targeting iPhone users primarily. On infected devices, Pegasus is a powerful spyware that can do many things, such as record conversations, steal private messages, exfiltrate photos, and much much more.

In many instances, the spyware was used by oppressive government regimes to spy on journalists, human rights defenders, opposition politicians, lawyers, and anti-corruption advocates.

But new data published today by Citizen Lab researchers reveals the existence of 36 different groups who deployed the Pegasus spyware against targets located in 45 countries, including the US, France, Canada, Switzerland, and the UK, countries known to have solid and democratic regimes in place.

Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/lawful-int...countries/