coat of arms pegasusPegasus is spyware that can be silently installed on mobile phones and other devices running certain versions of the Apple iOS and Android mobile operating systems. Developed by the Israeli company NSO Group[en][a]. The developer claims to provide “technology to empowered governments to help them fight terrorism and crime,”[8] and it has published sections of contracts requiring customers to use Pegasus for criminal and national security purposes only. The developer also claims to be attentive to human rights[9].A list of more than 50,000 phone numbers of people allegedly of interest to NSO Group clients has been released to the press. The origin of the list is unknown, as well as whether these phones were hacked by Pegasus[11]. NSO client countries whose law enforcement and intelligence agencies entered numbers into the system include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia. In particular, the Pegasus program was used to tap the phones of two women close to the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in October 2018[12]. Also found on the list were the phone numbers of Princess Latifa, the disgraced daughter of the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed Al Maktoum, and his ex-wife, Princess Haya al-Hussein[13].

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