When the Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO was first founded in 2010 as a small company of fewer than 10 people, its Pegasus spyware program terrified smartphone users around the world.
Pegasus mainly attacks Apple's systems, but it is also targeting Android. Using the "zero-day attack", there is no need to interact with the target mobile phone user (such as clicking on the link, downloading program, etc.), the controller can directly send a message through iMessage or make a voice call on social software such as Whatsapp (no need for the target mobile phone user to answer) to install the Pegasus software on the monitoring target mobile phone, even if it is installed on the wrong target, or the target mobile phone is no longer used, the controller can also make the software destroy itself, leaving no trace.
Once the mobile phone is recruited, not only the voice and text communication of the listener will be monitored around the clock, but also the address book, mailbox and software passwords, and the GPS positioning of the mobile phone will also be fully exposed, and even the listener's daily conversation and speech will be recorded by the mobile phone microphone and transmitted to the listener. It can be said that the mobile phone that hit Pegasus is a monitor that can move.
How Pegasus Software Works / The Guardian
Although the function of this mass killer is characterized by NSO as the use of communication means to intercept and combat terrorists and illegal activities, once it reaches the hands of customers, the use can be more. India uses it to eavesdrop on Pakistani intelligence and fight separatist forces in Kashmir; Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán uses it to grasp the movements of the domestic political opposition and take the initiative in the political game; and the Gulf states use pegasus to monitor "human rights activists" in exile abroad, gathering their own black materials to threaten to silence, including the Saudi journalist Khashoggi, who has been heavily disarmed.
An NSO company that survives on a double standard
In 2016, AlMan Sur, a Emirati human rights activist living in exile in Canada, received a text message saying there were internal videos of his government torturing prisoners. Mansour, who had been tracked by the government for years, was so alert that he directly handed the phone to the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto for testing, and the Pegasus spy software was exposed for the first time.
Since then, international human rights organizations, Middle Eastern and Western media have been attacking Pegasus Software for "aiding and abetting abuse", and whatsapp and Apple have also launched legal proceedings against NSO. In 2018, Israeli courts even uncovered an attempt by a former NSO employee to steal bitcoin privately using Pegasus software. Even French President Emmanuel Macron changed his mobile phone number to prevent Pegasus from eavesdropping.
However, according to the British Guardian investigation, until July 2021, despite the huge pressure of international politics and public opinion, the "Pegasus" still flew between the mobile phones of the political elite. In just 11 years since its establishment, NSO has evolved from a unicorn with only 20 employees invested in $1.8 million to a hegemon in information security with 500 top technologists and a market valuation of more than $1 billion.
This is related to NSO's business strategy. First of all, the NSO handed over the decision-making power to export Pegasus software to the Israeli government, and only acted as a "part-time worker" to avoid the political risks brought about by eavesdropping; while the Israeli government helped solve the "personal troubles" of politicians in various countries by selling Pegasus software, frequently scoring scores in diplomacy, and achieving a win-win situation between enterprises and the government.
It was after Netanyahu's government agreed to put Pegasus software in a $2 billion arms sales package to India that Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first Indian head of state to visit since israel was founded. In August 2020, Netanya Hutong intended to sell the latest enhanced version of Pegasus to the UAE government, and in September the UAE established diplomatic relations with Israel, turning the first page of the Abraham Peace Agreement.
Second, the NSO explicitly prohibits the use of Pegasus software to spy on SIM card phones in the United States or Israel. Under such bilateral measures, although international organizations complain every day that the NSO is an accomplice to political persecution, except for some miserable left-wing progressives, most of the Israeli people have assumed an attitude of discussing politics and even being proud of the production of such cutting-edge products in their own country.
It wasn't until February this year, when the Israeli media exposed that the Pegasus software was used by the Israeli police to monitor their own citizens, that everyone suddenly felt that something was wrong.
Whoever wounds with a sword will be wounded by a sword
The first victim to be exposed was former Prime Minister Netanyahu, who was deeply involved in a corruption case.
Earlier, Israeli prosecutors investigated and found that Netanyahu had used material means to win over domestic media giants such as Walla News to make positive reports on them in public opinion and achieve an exchange of benefits. These allegations directly or indirectly affected Netanyahu's performance in the election, leading to the failure of his eventual cabinet formation. After losing public office status protection, Israeli prosecutors launched an indictment against Netanyahu.
Unexpectedly, in February this year, the Israeli media found that during Netanyahu's tenure as prime minister, his relatives and friends had been repeatedly monitored by the police with Pegasus and other NSO software, including then media advisers Luke and Urić, the head of the Ministry of Finance Babad, the then president of Walla News Joshua, the prime minister's confidant Field, and even Netanyahu's son Avner.
Netanyahu with son Avner/Sinai
Babad, Joshua and others, because they were caught by the prosecution, agreed to testify in the prosecution's criminal charges against Netanyahu in order to reduce the punishment.
At that time, Netanyahu helped him monitor political opponents and suppress the opposition by selling Pegasus to regional allies, and built a wide circle of personal friends. This is in line with the old saying in the Middle East that whoever hurts with a sword will be hurt by a sword.
However, as the incident came to light, Pegasus helped Netanyahu a lot. On the day of the incident, the former prime minister took a sad and indignant posture, calling himself "stunned", Israel experienced a "dark day" in history, and his team of lawyers immediately determined that the prosecution's methods of gathering evidence were illegal, so that all allegations of corruption in Netanyahu were untenable, and asked the judge to immediately suspend the trial until the investigation of the illegal surveillance incident had a new outcome. If the illegal surveillance incident is conclusive, the prosecution's accusations against Netanyahu will be dismissed because of illegal procedures, and Netanyahu, who was originally determined to lose the case because of the evidence of corruption and may have bid farewell to the political arena, relied on the Pegasus scandal to seize the life-saving straw.
Fearful people, angry people
As the media investigation deepened, the list of Pegasus software victims grew longer and longer, the leaders of Ethiopian-Jewish protest organizations, the heads of wheelchair associations, a number of mayors and business elites have been listed, so far, except for Netanyahu's confidants, no one who has been "Pegasus" has been harassed by the police or prosecutors, but this has not reassured some people.
Ms. Hadassah, who lives in Jerusalem, revealed that in recent years, gray industries such as binary options, underground foreign exchange trading, online gambling, and pornography live broadcasting have flourished in Israel, and many people have played a little clever tax evasion. These gray earners "immediately exploded" after learning that the police used Pegasus software to monitor their citizens, because once they were monitored by Pegasus software, they would definitely fall into the handle, and although the government did not pay attention to it for the time being, the sword of Damocles could fall at any time.
Israeli media publish lists/networks of surveillance victims
In the local media and forums in Israel, people from all walks of life have given tips to prevent Pegasus surveillance, and the discussion is in full swing, a picture of brainstorming to save mankind. However, the cybersecurity experts around Hadassah suggested abandoning unnecessary resistance, because all prevention and control measures are "childish and ridiculous".
In fact, the vast majority of ordinary Israelis who face the threat of terrorist attacks at all times do not care about giving up some personal privacy in exchange for life safety, and Israel also has a large network information warfare force, these information-based top soldiers usually live among ordinary people, either relatives of this family or neighbors of that family, and everyone usually knows the strength of government surveillance. But ordinary people are still angry about the Pegasus surveillance incident.
"For the sake of security, we can accept surveillance from security services such as the Mossad or The Simbett," said Aytan, an employee of a small company in Jerusalem, "but the nature of the police is different, they have no right to spy on the privacy of ordinary citizens for reasons other than security." This crosses our red line. ”
At the time of the Pegasus scandal, the Israeli police were already on the cusp of a series of scandals. In early February, a depressed girl called the police, saying that she had suicidal feelings and hoped for police help, but the police at the connection called her a "fool" and asked her to "die", and the girl eventually committed suicide.
On January 31, the media revealed that Hakrush, a senior Israeli arab police officer and high commissioner for community crime investigation, saw a dying man lying on the stairs with knife wounds lying on the stairs when he was on a police tour of the Arab zone, and instead of carrying out rescue and investigation, he stepped over the victim and eventually died.
Ironically, the police have been claiming that because the law prohibits the use of Pegasus software to monitor their citizens, the police are powerless to reduce the crime rate in the Arab community.
Now it is found that the police have been using Pegasus software against their own citizens, but not to stop crimes, but for political infighting, and perhaps in the future will be used to catch ordinary people.
Although Prime Minister Bennett immediately launched an investigation after the incident, promised to give the people an account, and the opposition parties in the parliament threatened to start a motion to dissolve the parliament, the confidence of the Israeli people in the government was shaken.
Israelis have long been proud of the government's policies that are different from home and abroad — as cold as a harsh winter to external enemies, as targeted as bombings and assassinations, as warm as spring for their own citizens, and no death penalty for any serious crime. But now, in the Pegasus surveillance incident, the Israelis suddenly found that in the eyes of the government, they were no different from outsiders. (Editor-in-Charge / Zhang Xibei)
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