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A review by socraticgadfly
Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy by Sandrine Rigaud, Laurent Richard
adventurous
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.25
This is a very solid overview of the rise of the NSO Group, as well as a little backstory on earlier companies that overlapped with its early days in the dark arts of cybersnooping on smartphones.
And, though NSO itself crashed as a company after the hardcore journalism revealed here, the ideas, the concepts, did not.
In fact, the epilogue notes that the UAE hired some of NSO's staffers and now has its own state-run phone-snooping agency.
Even if the NSO had started with even more pristine intentions, it probably would have ended at the same point. Look at Google and its original "Do No Evil" motto. Some small "hook" on that was missing, especially when the book did note the UAE picking up the ball and running with it.
The second thing to note is that while heavy-duty tech work was involved with sussing out all the hacked phones, this was ultimately investigative journalism, not tech journalism.
The third thing is citing Edward Snowden when Russia of course has similar tools. Maybe in their next book, Richard and Rigaud can ask him how he feels about Glenn Greenwald not publishing 90 percent of what he gave him, and similar items.
Otherwise, though, no, one need not know massive amounts of technology to read this book. You can skip the file names and such, and just note the programs that were hacked. Speaking of, will Apple tighten up some apps, as its expansion of what all iMessage could do led to it becoming one of the last back doors Pegasus targeted?
And, though NSO itself crashed as a company after the hardcore journalism revealed here, the ideas, the concepts, did not.
In fact, the epilogue notes that the UAE hired some of NSO's staffers and now has its own state-run phone-snooping agency.
Even if the NSO had started with even more pristine intentions, it probably would have ended at the same point. Look at Google and its original "Do No Evil" motto. Some small "hook" on that was missing, especially when the book did note the UAE picking up the ball and running with it.
The second thing to note is that while heavy-duty tech work was involved with sussing out all the hacked phones, this was ultimately investigative journalism, not tech journalism.
The third thing is citing Edward Snowden when Russia of course has similar tools. Maybe in their next book, Richard and Rigaud can ask him how he feels about Glenn Greenwald not publishing 90 percent of what he gave him, and similar items.
Otherwise, though, no, one need not know massive amounts of technology to read this book. You can skip the file names and such, and just note the programs that were hacked. Speaking of, will Apple tighten up some apps, as its expansion of what all iMessage could do led to it becoming one of the last back doors Pegasus targeted?