Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy Cover
Podcast Mentions

Pegasus How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy

Laurent Richard

Featuring an introduction by Rachel Maddow, Pegasus is widely regarded as the most effective and sought-after cyber-surveillance system on the market. The system’s creator, the NSO Group, a private corporation headquartered in Israel, is not shy about proclaiming its ability to thwart terrorists an...

Podcasts 1
Quotes 5
The Rachel Maddow Show

It was written by two journalists who revealed the existence of phone-hacking software and its usage by oppressive governments around the world. It was also mentioned that the book's introduction was written by Rachel Maddow.

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The insidious power of a Pegasus infection was that it was completely invisible to the victim. You'd have no way to know the baddies were reading your texts and emails and listening in on your calls a...

— Episode: Police arrest disgruntled Republican can...

Episode: Police arrest disgruntled Republican candidate in...

It was written by two journalists who revealed the existence of phone-hacking software and its usage by oppressive governments around the world. It was also mentioned that the book's introduction was written by Rachel Maddow.

"

The insidious power of a Pegasus infection was that it was completely invisible to the victim. You'd have no way to know the baddies were reading your texts and emails and listening in on your calls and even your in-person meetings until they used their ability to track your exact location to send the men with guns to meet you.

For the Pegasus project to succeed in exposing the scale of the scandal, the journalists knew they would need to be able to diagnose an infection or an attempted infection on an individual phone.

Claudio and Danca figured out how to do it. Working quite literally alone, these two took on a multibillion-dollar corporation that employed 550 well-paid cyber specialists, many with the highest levels of military cyber warfare training.

To best that Goliath, these two Davids had to fashion their own slingshot. They had to invent the methods and tools of their forensics on the fly.

That they succeeded in that is as improbable as it is important, for all of our sakes.

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