Apple vs. NSO was the final case we considered concerning NSO, an Israeli tech business that creates and sells malware. NSO has created a strong program called Pegasus that can decrypt iOS and Android devices. Governments, IT businesses, and journalists dislike Pegasus not because of its skills, but because of how NSO advertises and pushes them. This includes cyber terrorists, black hat hackers, nation governments having a sour relationship with the rest of the world, and those engaged in a long history of human rights violations and press censorship.
Pegasus was recently installed on eleven US State Department officials' phones. With its extensive encryption capabilities, Pegasus is deployed via typical ways including exploiting bugs in mobile apps (like Whatsapp) and tricking the user into opening an attachment or link that installs the spyware once clicked. This link may also be sent as a text message, as is the norm. It can harvest passwords, text messages, contacts, and images like any good malware.
According to NSO authorities, Pegasus is used by security forces and counterintelligence teams to reveal cyber criminals, child predators, and terrorists. While both friends and foes of the US employ Pegasus, the former has recently gained prominence. A list of “companies participating in actions that are antithetical to national security or foreign policy objectives of the United States” was published in November, making doing business with US firms difficult for NSO and its subsidiaries. To preserve or breach encryption, the NSO and the IT industry are constantly adapting to one other's innovations.
