Project Pegasus: Deeply disappointing to see Apple doing nothing to stop spyware, says Omar Abdullah

Omar Abdullah said i am not at all surprised governments are using software that exploit loopholes to spy on people

The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Vice President and former chief minister, Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said after the revelations were made by Project Pegasus, it was deeply disappointing to see Apple Inc. doing nothing to stop such spyware.

Omar says that it, however, was not surprising for him to know about the revelations made by Project Pegasus about governments using spyware to keep track of people’s conversations.

“I’m not at all surprised governments are using software that exploits loopholes to spy on people,” Omar Abdullah said.

He further added, “What is surprising & deeply disappointing is companies like Apple make tall claims about privacy & data protection but have done nothing to stop spyware like Pegasus.”

I’m not at all surprised governments are using software that exploit loopholes to spy on people. What is surprising & deeply disappointing is companies like @Apple make tall claims about privacy & data protection but have done nothing to stop spyware like #Pegasus.

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) July 20, 2021

It is pertinent to mention here that Pegasus is spyware developed by the Israeli cyber arms firm NSO Group that can be covertly installed on mobile phones (and other devices) running most versions of iOS and Android.

The 2021 Project Pegasus revelations suggest that current Pegasus software is able to exploit all recent iOS versions up to iOS 14.6.

According to the Washington Post and other prominent media sources, Pegasus not only enables the keystroke monitoring of all communications from a phone (texts, emails, web searches) but it also enables phone call and location tracking, while also permitting NSO Group to hijack both the mobile phone’s microphone and camera, thus turning it into a constant surveillance device.