SUMMARY OF PEGASUS: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy
THIS IS NEITHER A BOOK BY LAURENT RICHARD, AND SANDRINE RIGAUD , NOR IS IT ASSOCIATED WITH THEM. IT IS AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION BY STELLA ROBERT, THAT DESCRIBES THIER BOOK IN DETAIL.
About the Original book
The compelling insider account of one of the most technologically advanced surveillance tools ever made, which is endangering democracy and human rights.
The Guardian called it "absorbing" and "a celebration of journalism and hacking being used to reveal the evil guys."
Pegasus is widely regarded as the most potent cyber-surveillance technology currently available, and any government that can pay its high price can purchase it. The NSO group, a private firm with its headquarters in Israel, which developed the system, brags about its capacity to stop terrorists and criminals: "Thousands of individuals in Europe owe their lives to hundreds of our company employees," they said in 2019. It's possible that's the case, but the Pegasus system doesn't simply catch criminals.
Repressive governments have spied on thousands of innocent people, including journalists, heads of state, diplomats, advocates for human rights, attorneys, and political rivals. The technology is essentially undetectable and has the ability to monitor a person's everyday activities in real time, take complete control of the device's microphones and cameras, and record all movies, images, emails, texts, and passwords, whether they are encrypted or not. Even its full scope is unknown.
Written by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud, the two intrepid journalists that exposed the scandal in conjunction with a global group of journalists, this is the compelling account of how Pegasus was discovered.
They were given a list of 50,000 mobile phone numbers that had been compromised, but they had to demonstrate NSO's involvement. Their results stunned the world after a perilous and covert inquiry that took place around the globe. Pegasus is a tense and captivating book that explores the way in which this unprecedented menace has upended the lives of thousands of people. It also highlights the horrifying new ways in which governments and companies are trampling on human rights and silenceing unarmed citizens.
