Jeff Bezos’ intimate messages, data from drug cartels, Jamal Kashoggi — the many things Pegasus is suspected of hacking instead of terrorists and criminals

• The NSO Group is the shadowy cybersecurity firm from Israel behind the spyware software, Pegasus.
• A new investigation led by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism nonprofit, and Amnesty International, identified more than 1,000 people across 50 countries currently under surveillance.
• This includes several Arab royal family members, business executives, human rights activities, journalists, politicians and government officials.

The NSO Group is in the spotlight again for its flagship software, Pegasus, being used to spy on business executives, journalists, human rights activities, politicians, diplomats and even prime ministers.

A new investigation led by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism nonprofit, and Amnesty International, identified more than 1,000 people across 50 countries currently under surveillance taking back to 2016.

Of the 189 journalists on the list, at least 40 were Indian including investigative journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, co-founders of the The Wire — Siddharth Varadarajan and MK Venu — columnist Prem Shankar Jha, contibutor Swarti Chaturvedi and others.

In 2019, the cybersecurity firm reportedly used their flagship software, Pegasus, to hack into the phones of 1,400 WhatsApp users.

This isn’t the first time that the NSO Group has made headlines. The Israeli hacker collective has been around since 2010 and human rights organisations have been trying to peek behind the veil.

Here’s everything you need to know about the security firm that was once merely a startup: