MILITARY-grade spyware used by governments to track journalists, politicians and human rights activists could be on your phone.
More than 50,000 phone numbers believed to have the spyware have been leaked online, which are believed to be of interest to government clients of the Israeli surveillance fire NSO Group.
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What is Pegasus spyware?
Pegasus is military-grade software that can be secretly uploaded onto a smartphone or device.
It’s been round since 2016 but a recent leak has brought it back into the news.
It was designed by Israeli company NSO Group, also called as Q Cyber Technologies.
The spyware can film you through your phone camera, listen to calls and even send messages from your phone.
It’s known to have targeted both Apple and Android devices.
Pegasus used to be installed on smartphones by encouraging victims to click on a link that may have been emailed or texted to them.
A new version of the spyware can load on a phone without the user needing to click anything.
It can avoid detection by antivirus software.
How to check if Pegasus spyware is on your phone
Amnesty International has released a new tool so you can check if Pegasus spyware is secretly on your phone.
The human rights organisation released a detailed report and the toolkit for anyone concerned.
The Mobile Verification Toolkit looks for small traces left behind by the software.
Overall, the process takes about a minute or two once you’ve uploaded a back up of all your phones information to the webpage.
Thousands of iPhones in US potentially HACKED after Israeli firm’s spyware infected iPhone 11 and 12 models
In other news, WhatsApp is working on a new feature to fix a huge security loophole in its encryption system.
Facebook allegedly fired over 50 employees who took advantage of their data access to spy on users and even read private messages.
And, if you have an iPhone that’s older than the iPhone X you’ll miss out on some of the new iOS 15 features.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
