Bringing new insight to the NSO Pegasus spyware controversy, Telegram founder Pavel Durov has revealed that he had been conscious because 2018 at least that he was a target of the Israeli spyware. Durov mentioned that he had data that one of his mobile numbers was on the spyware target list. However, he was in no way worried about the identical as he had gotten accustomed to assuming that his phone was usually tracked quite early in his life in Russia.
Talking about the current reports released by Amnesty International about the spyware becoming used to target journalists, political opponents and constitutional authorities, Durov mentioned it was quite quick for the government agencies to get access to any device-iPhone or Android. Durov also mentioned that it was practically not possible to defend one’s device from the government agencies as the program is breached on a deeper level.
On the use of many applications that purportedly claim to defend the device from surveillance, Durov mentioned that it does not matter which applications a user chooses or what they do to defend their device. Taking the surveillance debate to a new dimension, the Telegram founder also referred to the revelations made by Edward Snowden — former CIA subcontractor who had leaked the data from the National Security Agency- that Google and Apple are a portion of the international surveillance system.
He alleged that tech conglomerates like Google and Apple implement backdoors into their mobile operating systems. It was by means of these backdoors that the US agencies can get access to the mobile device of the customers, he alleged. Linking the exploitation of these backdoors to other organisations in addition to the US agencies, Durov mentioned that such backdoors can be used to get access by any individual who is profitable in uncovering the backdoors inserted by these corporations.
A group of media organisations and Amnesty International broke the Pegasus spywares story about widespread misuse of the Pegasus spyware across diverse nations about the world like India.