How Tyrants Use Tech to Spy on All of Us
A conversation with the co-authors of Pegasus on how one Israeli company enabled governments around the world to secretly infect mobile phones and why everyone’s privacy is still at risk.
Technology sold by Israel’s NSO Group turns phones into spying devices.
Photographer: Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Parmy Olson: You’re the co-authors of a new book, “Pegasus: How a Spy In Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy,” which tells the story of Pegasus, a powerful spyware developed by the Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group. In recent years, a range of governments around the world purchased this technology, allowing them to gain remote-control access to people’s mobile phones without their knowledge. In 2020, a secret source leaked a list to your team of investigative journalists in Paris that contained 50,000 phone numbers that NSO Group’s clients wanted to spy on. Among the names on the list were French president Emmanuel Macron, the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi and a raft of journalists, including your own colleagues.