In recent weeks, you may have heard in the news about the spyware Pegasus and how it could have been used by the Spanish government to spy on prominent figures within the Catalan independence movement, such as Roger Torrent, former president of the Parliament of Catalonia.
Recently, the government confirmed that the cell phones of President Pedro Sánchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles had also been spied on, which further complicates the matter, at least at a political level.
But leaving aside these political implications, you have surely come here looking for the answer to another question: whether or not your mobile may also be infected with this virus. software designed by the Israeli NSO Group to to hack journalists and world leaders.
Luckily, there is a tool to check if it is hidden on your iPhone, although we already told you that you probably have nothing to worry about. It’s about a spyware for military use developed by the aforementioned Israeli firm that is used to monitor political leaders, activists, dissidents and journalists.
But if you are concerned, there is a way to check if your iPhone has been infected. You should know that it’s not an easy test, but if you’re using a Mac or Linux PC and have used it to back up your iPhone, Amnesty International’s Mobile Verification Toolkit will be able to detect if your phone has the spyware Pegasus installed.
This tool, which TechCrunch has been able to test, it works using the macOS Terminal app and finds your latest iPhone backup on your Mac, but “it’s not a polished user experience and requires some knowledge of how to navigate Terminal.”
You will need to install libusb, in addition to Python 3 using Homebrew. GitHub has more information about the installation process. TechCrunch ensures that that check only lasts “a minute or two” once you’ve set it up.
On Twitter, user @rayredacted detailed the process in a lengthy thread that includes extra sources and explanations.
As you may have heard, @amnesty has released mat-detect. an amazing tool for detecting whether your device has evidence that it may have been touched by the Pegasus spyware. In this thread I am going to tell you about my experience and lessons using this tool one iOS. (1/13) pic.twitter.com/pJRTv4FVPf
—Ray [REDACTED] (@RayRedacted) July 21, 2021
You may also be interested in these articles:
