Pegasus spyware, created by NSO, is a danger to iPhone users’ privacy. This sneaky program can take over your phone without you doing anything. It grabs almost all your info and some versions can even turn on your camera and microphone. Pegasus uses secret flaws in iPhones that Apple hasn’t found yet. Still, Apple has a plan to catch it.
Apple’s Efforts to Find Pegasus
Apple built special tools into iOS to spot when spyware sneaks into an iPhone, even if they don’t know how it got there. When they think a phone’s been hit, they warn the owner and start hunting for the weak spot Pegasus used. Last summer, for example, Apple sent alerts to users in nearly 100 countries.
Apple has told tons of people in 98 countries that “mercenary spyware” might have attacked their phones, risking nearly all their private data. They admit they’re not always 100% sure, but they’re pretty confident and tell users to take the warning seriously.
Here are some past cases:
- Apple tipped off a Polish prosecutor her phone might be hacked by NSO.
- Apple warned pro-democracy activists in Thailand about a Pegasus attack.
- Apple alerted an Indian opposition leader about a possible iPhone hack.
Only Half of Infected Phones Caught
A new study says Apple is only finding about half of the phones hit by Pegasus. This info comes from iVerify, a mobile security company. They made a $1 app last year that lets you check your phone and send the results to them. You pay once and can scan monthly.
From those scans, iVerify figured out how common Pegasus is and checked if Apple warned the infected users. After big news coverage, 18,000 more people used the app and found 11 new Pegasus cases in December alone. Now, iVerify estimates about 1.5 out of every 1,000 scanned phones have Pegasus.
With more scans, they’re sure of this number. They also noticed that not just big shots as politicians get hit—regular folks in jobs like government, finance, logistics, and real estate do too. Some were tracked for years with different Pegasus types. Surprisingly, Apple didn’t warn about half of these victims. Without verifying, they’d never know their phones were hacked. iVerify says they only counted phones they were sure were infected.
