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rainbowbookworm's review
5.0
Fascinating not just in terms of cyber-security, but in terms of the journalistic endeavor.
rereinis's review
2.0
Unfocused and self-centered
A title of a book should at least be an indicator of what it is about and its main focus. However, here, it seems the authors were more interested in their experiences and the path of exposing the "scoop" than what the title suggests the topic would be. The book mainly talks about the journalistic process and the behind the scenes characters of getting an article out. Mired in descriptions of rather mundane meetings without a clear goal and backstories of people that are seemingly in the book just to pad the page count. Even this is a bit unfocused and it is hard to understand what kind of a story the book is trying to tell. Descriptions of people talking about how one of them has sent an e-mail and the other one not receiving it only to receive it 5 minutes later without an issue (who was this even for!?) do not help either. This book could have used a critical eye of an editor.
The worst thing though is that what gets left out is actually Pegasus itself. While there are some descriptions of the company behind Pegasus and its odious man in charge, the technology itself is barely explained and its workings seemingly incomprehensible to the authors. They do not seem to be particularly tech-savvy and as such, maybe they were not the right people to write a book with this title. The book is about journalism and as such it is fine, but at the end of the day it is not about Pegasus. And this was very disappointing.
A title of a book should at least be an indicator of what it is about and its main focus. However, here, it seems the authors were more interested in their experiences and the path of exposing the "scoop" than what the title suggests the topic would be. The book mainly talks about the journalistic process and the behind the scenes characters of getting an article out. Mired in descriptions of rather mundane meetings without a clear goal and backstories of people that are seemingly in the book just to pad the page count. Even this is a bit unfocused and it is hard to understand what kind of a story the book is trying to tell. Descriptions of people talking about how one of them has sent an e-mail and the other one not receiving it only to receive it 5 minutes later without an issue (who was this even for!?) do not help either. This book could have used a critical eye of an editor.
The worst thing though is that what gets left out is actually Pegasus itself. While there are some descriptions of the company behind Pegasus and its odious man in charge, the technology itself is barely explained and its workings seemingly incomprehensible to the authors. They do not seem to be particularly tech-savvy and as such, maybe they were not the right people to write a book with this title. The book is about journalism and as such it is fine, but at the end of the day it is not about Pegasus. And this was very disappointing.
savoirplus's review
Not about what I thought it would be.
More about the behind the scenes of reporting, rather than more of the official "story".
More about the behind the scenes of reporting, rather than more of the official "story".
frantear's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
3.5
where_the_pages_bleed's review
5.0
Please excuse me while I ignore my phone after reading this...
BUT READ THIS
BUT READ THIS
jessicalgeuther's review
5.0
Holy cow. I'm not tech savvy at all but this book does a great job spelling out how much danger we keep in our pockets all the time- what the tech world can do is astounding and these brave journalists spell it out in a way even ordinary people can understand. The last few lines of the epilogue still have me slightly freaked out. Great read, important read.
teachinsci's review
4.0
Pegasus, by Laurent Richard & Sandine Riguad, tells the tale of researching and publishing a series of articles about a hack of cell phones. It was also the scariest non-fiction book I have read since Hot Zone.
The book starts off simply enough explaining how the authors were first introduced to the world of Pegasus and what the puritan was believed to do. Then, for the next 26 chapters, the story weaves together the history of the journalists programmers, and editors involved in bringing the truth about Pegasus to light.
I had honestly heard only a small amount of this previously and quieted hope something that SHOULD have been a huge news story could have made as little impact as it has to this point. In listening, I found it was because numbers with American country codes were not supposed to be subject to infection by the spyware that makes up Pegasus. That being said, there were a couple of times when the authors seemed to indicate that American numbers had been compromised as well as those of people world-wide. This infected range from politicians, to journalists, to family and friends of those so some governments thought needed a closer watch.
This book is definitely worth reading and the audiobook (which switches from make to female narrator just as the book itself does) is a wonderful way to experience this story of the century.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy of this audiobook.
#Pegasus #netgalley
The book starts off simply enough explaining how the authors were first introduced to the world of Pegasus and what the puritan was believed to do. Then, for the next 26 chapters, the story weaves together the history of the journalists programmers, and editors involved in bringing the truth about Pegasus to light.
I had honestly heard only a small amount of this previously and quieted hope something that SHOULD have been a huge news story could have made as little impact as it has to this point. In listening, I found it was because numbers with American country codes were not supposed to be subject to infection by the spyware that makes up Pegasus. That being said, there were a couple of times when the authors seemed to indicate that American numbers had been compromised as well as those of people world-wide. This infected range from politicians, to journalists, to family and friends of those so some governments thought needed a closer watch.
This book is definitely worth reading and the audiobook (which switches from make to female narrator just as the book itself does) is a wonderful way to experience this story of the century.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy of this audiobook.
#Pegasus #netgalley