Pegasus Spyware, an innocent name, a horrible outcome.

                According to “Lookout Inc”, a mobile security set up company, “Pegasus Spyware”, is an attack that allows an adversary to silently jailbreak an iOS device and steathily spy on victims, collecting information from voice communications, camera, email, messaging, GPS, passwords, and contact lists.  

              For myself, it was an ordinary day, I was on my phone, like any teenager,listening to music when an a message popped up on my phone about “Pegasus Spyware”. I was on a music app at the time and I usually got ads, so I just exed the pop-up out and completely ignored it. Over the next week or so I continued to get little pop-up ads about “Pegasus Spyware”, and I began to become a little suspicious. I told myself the next ad I got from that company that I would do research or go to apple for advice.

   Weeks passed, and nothing happened. I no longer received  any ads and I thought I was fine.

      However I thought wrong. Just when I had completely forgot about the strange ads, my phone began glitching very often and shutting off on its on by itself. I obviously knew there was something wrong with my phone, but at the time I was unable to connect the two events to each other.

      Just when I thought things couldn’t get any weirder, a few days later my phone began beeping at random points of the day. Another strange occurrence was one day my phone completely blocked me from google, claiming that there was “an unusual presence” on my device, and gave me a link to prove I was not a robot. I tried to fill out the survey, but after five minutes of typing in random codes I gave up and jumped on my computer for a self diagnosis.

        Unsure of what to type, I immediately remembered the ad and typed in “Pegasus Spyware”, and was stunned with my results. I was horrified knowing for weeks that someone had just been sitting there watching me through my own camera. As I began to research this company, I was informed that it was an Israeli group that mainly preyed on journalists who wrote articles that put down their groups/organizations, and hacked their phones by via text message sending them a link that immediately bugged their phone. Confused, I deleted the weird app that gave me those weird ads and continued living my life since my encounters with Pegasus Spyware was different, because I had received ads on my phone not text messages and I was not a professional journalist targeting Israeli groups.

      A few days later, I was on the phone with my dad and he gave me his credit card number over the phone. Little did we know my hackers were able to tap into our phone call.

        The next day my dad received a call from his credit card company saying that over $200 was spent in an overseas country, and with unusual spending they were required to  call their customers. My dad explained that those were not his purchases and the credit card company immediately refunded him.

        After hearing this information I freaked out, I was desperate.

             I continued to research the company and found that journalists were not the only targets. Everyday people like myself were also affected, and their personal information was collected and sold. The advice from several websites told me to update my phone, since Apple recognized this problem and supplied users with a new update that provided a firewall against these hackers. I  immediately updated my phone and drove off to Apple to get help.

              They told me I was all set, now that I had updated my phone, and to get the app, “Lookout” which is free in the app store and it monitors your phone and notifies you if you are being hacked. The app even back ups contacts and photos so if anything does happen, then your things are secure.

         With the holiday season in full swing, people’s security becomes more at risk.

As reported by “Data Breach Reports”, an organization that supplies companies with data breach/ hack statistics, in 2015 177,866,236 personal records were hacked during the holiday season in the United States.

       Since then, in 2016 51% of people began actively monitoring their security information on their electronic devices.

           As these numbers continue to rise, and hacking numbers begin to  decrease, it is still important to make sure you are not making your device vulnerable for cyber predators.

          The advice I received from my apple consultant was to download “Lookout”, and to avoid sites or apps that seemed to good to be true. This includes free music or movie apps/sites  that are free and don’t give many ads or limitations. Another piece of advice she gave me was to always keep your phone up to date with updates.

     “The Guardian”, also advises users to beware of open wifi. By being on an open wifi, anyone in the vicinity can stalk what you’re doing online and potentially jail break your device.

       With the capabilities of cyber predators, it’s important to keep you and your device safe online before it’s too late.