Pegasus

Featuring an introduction written and narrated by Rachel Maddow Pegasus: How a Spy in Our Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy Dignity and Democracy is the story of the one of the most sophisticated and invasive surveillance weapons ever created used by governments around the worldPegasus 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 and criminals. “Thousands of people in Europe owe their lives to hundreds of our company employees” NSO’s cofounder declared in 2019. This bold assertion may be true at least in part but it’s by no means the whole story.NSO’s Pegasus system has not been limited to catching bad guys. It’s also been used to spy on hundreds and maybe thousands of innocent people around the world: heads of state diplomats human rights defenders political opponents and journalists. This spyware is as insidious as it is invasive capable of infecting a private cell phone without alerting the owner and of doing its work in the background in silence virtually undetectable. Pegasus can track a person’s daily movement in real time gain control of the device’s microphones and cameras at will and capture all videos photos emails texts and passwords—encrypted or not. This data can be exfiltrated stored on outside servers and then leveraged to blackmail intimidate and silence the victims. Its full reach is not yet known. “If they’ve found a way to hack one iPhone” says Edward Snowden “they’ve found a way to hack all iPhones.”Pegasus is a look inside the monthslong worldwide investigation triggered by a single spectacular leak of data and a look at how an international consortium of reporters and editors revealed that cyber intrusion and cyber surveillance are happening with exponentially increasing frequency across the globe at a scale that astounds.Meticulously reported and masterfully written Pegasus shines a light on the lives that have been turned upside down by this unprecedented threat and exposes the chilling new ways authoritarian regimes are eroding key pillars of democracy: privacy freedom of the press and freedom of speech.A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.