How to get rid of Pegasus spyware | How to detect Pegasus spying software | All you need to know about Pegasus malware How to get rid of Pegasus spyware | How to detect Pegasus spying software | All you need to know about Pegasus malware

How to get rid of Pegasus spyware | How to detect Pegasus spying software | All you need to know about Pegasus malware

How to get rid of Pegasus spyware | How to detect Pegasus spying software | All you need to know about Pegasus malware


According to media reports on Monday, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan was one of many possible targets of the Israeli made Pegasus spyware programme by client countries of the NSO Group, a cybertechnology firm.

Israeli firm NSO's spyware Pegasus which came to spotlight around since 2016 for the first time as it has targeted several high-profile people around the world through one of the most powerful hacking tool available in the world till now.

According to the some publications, the Pegasus spyware can be used to record calls, copy messages, and even film people using phone cameras. It can be installed on both Apple iOS and Android devices.

The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Le Monde published the report as media partners to an investigation conducted by Paris-based media non-profit Forbidden Stories and rights group Amnesty International into a leaked list of more than 50,000 phone numbers from around the world that are believed to have been the target of the attackers.

This investigation has sparked widespread concern around the world because anyone could be hacked by such software. Nikhil Pahwa, an Indian digital rights activist, took to Twitter to discuss the software's extent of control.

The question that people have been asking after this revelations is that how to detect Pegasus malware and how to remove it.

How Pegasus enters your device:

Pegasus can apparently infect a phone simply by making a WhatsApp call. Even if the user does not answer the phone, the phone can become infected.

Phishing is another method by which spyware attacks are carried out. By clicking on links in emails or text messages, the attacker can gain limited access to the device.

How to detect Pegasus software on phone:

Regular people are unable to detect spyware on their phones, and only experts are capable of doing so as this software is highly sophisticated.

From Amnesty International's Forensic Methodology Report we can look for traces left by the Pegasus spyware.

Initial traces were found in Safari's browsing history, but such suspicious redirects were later discovered in other apps as well, according to India Today. A total of 700 Pegasus-related domains are mentioned in the report.

Users can check for all the indicators of a compromise through Amnesty International's GitHub. In addition, the organisation has also released a modular tool, called Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT) for such an analysis

How to get rid of Pegasus malware:

According to cybersecurity experts and analysts, the only way to completely remove Pegasus is to dispose of the infected phone. This is due to the fact that the attackers appear to be able to access online accounts even after the device has been de-infected.

Even factory resetting your smartphone, according to Citizen Lab, will not remove the spyware completely. Furthermore, once you've replaced the device, double-check that all of the apps you've installed are up to date.
If your device has already been infected, you should delink all cloud accounts and change all passwords to improve security.

Here is the list of countries who used Pegasus Malware created by NSO as issued by Amnesty international.

Use of technology and vulnerability:

The revelations from Amnesty International about the phone hacking abilities of Israel’s NSO group are shocking! The Pegasus hack is crazy scary!. It shows how much vulnerable we are in this new technological world with spying devices in our own pockets.
 
They can hack anyone’s phone and turn it into a spying device, getting access to all data and even being able to turn on the microphone and camera at will.

This user does not know their phone has been hacked. To make matters worse it is sold to governments such as India who have used it against journalists, politicians and activists. Even the phones of Pakistan’s cabinet and Prime Minister etc were targeted. 

What a crazy world we live in today! 
The age old maxim goes, if you want something to he secure never put it on a digital device!

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