The use of Pegasus for committing "horrible human rights violations" must be stopped, according to WhatsApp's CEO.

 WhatsApp Head Will Cathcart said on Twitter that NSO's Pegasus is being used to "commit horrible human rights abuses" around the world and that "it must be stopped." He was responding to an investigation conducted by a global media consortium that revealed that the spyware is being used to spy on activists and journalists. India was discovered to be one of more than 50 nations where the malware is suspected of being deployed as a cyber-surveillance weapon. WhatsApp sued Israel's NSO Group in 2019 for allowing its Pegasus virus to get access to user devices by exploiting a vulnerability in its app.

Cathcart advocated in a lengthy Twitter thread that human rights activists, internet firms, and governments work together to improve user security and punish those responsible for the Pegasus malware accountable.

“This is a wake-up call for Internet security,” he added. “Billions of people rely on their smartphones as their primary computer. Governments and businesses must do everything necessary to make it as safe as possible.”

In 2019, @WhatsApp discovered and defeated an attack from NSO. They rely on unknown vulnerabilities in mobile OSes, which is one of the reasons why we felt it was so important to raise awareness of what we'd found. https://t.co/iSMuwLrKpJ

— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) July 18, 2021

Pegasus initially came to public attention in May 2019 for eavesdropping on activists, campaigners, journalists, and top government officials in 20 countries, including India. It used a known vulnerability, which WhatsApp patched before it was made public, to infect the targets' Android and iOS devices.

What Is Pegasus Spyware, and How Did It Target Indians on WhatsApp, According to Reports?

Months after eavesdropping allegations surfaced, WhatsApp launched a lawsuit against NSO Group, the creators of Pegasus. In addition, the Facebook-owned firm collaborated with Internet watchdog Citizen Lab to uncover more than 100 examples of abusive targeting of activists and journalists in more than 20 countries.

Cathcart stated that the most recent discovery demonstrated that the real magnitude of abuse is considerably worse.

“We need additional corporations, and more importantly, governments, to take action to hold NSO Group accountable,” he said. “Once again, we call for an immediate global embargo on the deployment of unaccountable surveillance technology.”

The new investigation, based on a massive data leak and conducted by 16 media outlets including India's The Wire and global outlets such as The Washington Post and The Guardian, revealed that Pegasus was used to monitor over a thousand activists, journalists, business executives, government officials, and politicians, among others.

According to security researchers, the spyware may be placed on a phone by exploiting a known weakness, and once installed, it can transfer data to the attacker such as SMS messages, emails, and even conversations from applications such as WhatsApp. It can also give GPS data, allowing the attacker to determine the exact position of their targets.

NSO Group maintains that Pegasus was created only for the purpose of spying on criminals and terrorists. However, a new investigation by media organizations and what was discovered in 2019 reveals that the malware has been exploited to target intellectuals with no criminal history.

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