All language subtitles for [English] The Most Dangerous Virus In The World [DownSub.com]

cybercrime is set to cost the world 10.5 trillion
dollars by 2025. this is larger than the entire

GDP of Germany France and the UK combined in
2021 but what if I told you that the world's

most dangerous virus is completely legal and could
be running on your phone right now without a trace

introducing Pegasus the world's most dangerous
computer virus why is it so dangerous well the

virus Grant almost complete access to your device
and to get infected you don't need to click a link

download something by mistake or do well anything
Pegasus tracks everything you do with or near your

smartphone and does so undetected a government
anywhere in the world could be accessing your

phone learning all of your activities and using
that information against you or those around you

simply put Pegasus is a malware program which
is a small viral file usually delivered online

a malware file might enable the tracking of
how a computer is used and even its immediate

environment but exactly what it does depends on
how it was programmed in the case of Pegasus the

access is almost complete it enables hackers
to record phone calls track location use the

phone camera to take photos or video read text
messages and much more the system then passes

back this data to the person who planted them
out where the name comes from Greek mythology a

nod to the winged horse of the same name it was
first discovered in 2016 when it was found in a

message to the iPhone of a human rights activist
called Ahmed Mansour Mansour forwarded the link

to the citizen lab of the University of Toronto
who were able to work out its capabilities at the

time the virus was programmed to exploit three
specific unknown security vulnerabilities these

vulnerabilities were found in phone apps and
allowed the Pegasus file to infiltrate a phone

without the knowledge of users the Pegasus malware
has existed since at least 2013 having taken so

many years to discover and has proven to be very
high profile in its use the killing of journalist

Jamal khasogi and the Saudi Arab Arabian
Consulate in Abu Dhabi for example resulted

in a lawsuit against the makers of Pegasus by
friends of khasogi who alleged it was used by

the Saudi government to spy on them in late 2021
it was proven that Pegasus had been on the phone

of kasoki's wife for several months placed there
by a government agency the information gathered

before his death in 2018 may have led to kasogi
becoming a Target and the connection is explored

in the Frontline documentary on kosogi produced
by PBS many people first heard of Pegasus though

when it was used to hack Amazon boss Jeff Bezos
in 2018 the same year kosogi died the Bezos hack

is likely connected to WhatsApp messages exchanged
with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman who bezos's

Washington Post had been critical of the hackers
had access to bezos's phone for months as well

as compromising his business privacy the hack also
notably led to the destruction of bezos's marriage

this was after leaked texts publicly revealed his
affair with reporter Lauren Sanchez the reason

Pegasus is a particularly dangerous example
full of this kind of spying is that it is sold

specifically to governments often for millions of
dollars made by the Israeli NSO group the purpose

officially is to track and Trace terrorists and
their activities however in practice the way

Pegasus is used is suspected to often be quite
a lot more underhand since its introduction

Pegasus has gone through several versions each
more powerful and capable than the last in its

newest guys if the malware is installed on your
device then nearly everything you do involving

or close to your smartphone becomes available to
the user Pegasus does this by exploiting security

bugs a type of security related programming
error in things like software packages and

operating platforms specifically Pegasus looks for
something called zero day vulnerabilities which is

suck issues that are known by some top security
Specialists but not yet known by the programmers

who created the software these weaknesses which
can be found across all operating systems allow

Pegasus to exploit the system to gain admin
rights to a smartphone or other device which

in turn grants extensive access the easiest way
for Pegasus malware to arrive on a device is via

a disguised link though there are far more subtle
methods too at one stage for example a security

issue meant that simply making a call to a device
via FaceTime on the iPhone allowed Pegasus to

install itself that security glitch thankfully
has now been fixed but new ones are always being

filmed when a government wants to make use of a
program like Pegasus it is nearly impossible to

prevent to the point that some Security Experts
simply recommend throwing out a smartphone as

the best solution or of course not carrying a
smartphone at certain strategic times to allow

for privacy others suggest removing a camera from
the device or other functionality that poses a

clear security risk a more practical if incomplete
solution is key keeping a smartphone fully up to

date which helps limit the security gaps that
Pegasus can operate through as companies learn

of them remember though that Pegasus often targets
security gaps that the program makers are not yet

aware of in its most modern formats Pegasus
is incredibly extensive it essentially uses

your phone at the same time as you anonymously
pulling in huge amounts of data and supplying

that data back to whoever placed the malware so
why should this worry you of course you're most

likely to be at risk if you do something that your
government won't like while terrorist tracking is

the official purpose of Pegasus it's quite likely
to have been used around the world for things

ranging from tracking protesters to learning
about the activities of political opponents

with use highly secretive and likely to be subject
to protest in itself if discovered it is hard in

practice to know quite how governments are using
the software what is certain though is that it has

been used against some journalists and activists
with the not-for-profit Forbidden stories doing a

wide-reaching expose in 2021 they even found
that relatively modern States like Hungary

and Poland have abused the software while another
investigation uncovered 10 other states using the

malware including India Mexico and Morocco in fact
research done by Amnesty International found 50

000 specific targets including 180 journalists
from 20 countries they included journalists

with CNN Al Jazeera the financial times and the
Wall Street Journal that's likely the tip of the

iceberg after all it would be a bit naive to think
the amnesty report caught everything while the

average person might feel their data isn't worth
stealing and in comparison to journalists and

politicians perhaps it isn't it's also true that
data is now used in everything from advertising

to monitoring Behavior so everyone's data has
some value while there is certainly something

to be gained commercially in tracking the average
person on the street and due to its very nature

nobody including its makers likely knows quite
how widespread Pegasus actually is it is though

thought to still be in the hands of governments
alone which is somewhat reassuring when you think

how its wider use could be abused one of the
best efforts to work out just how common the

malware is was by the Pegasus project which saw
major media organizations from around the world

investigate the malware over 80 journalists
from Publications including the Wall Street

Journal the guardian and LaMont spent months
working on amnesty International's list of 50

000 phone numbers and trying to establish its
accuracy they were able to link many of the

phone numbers concerned to the Pegasus spyware
despite this Pegasus makers denied a connection

this is an attempt to build something on a crazy
lack of information they said there is something

fundamentally wrong with this investigation
they also claim that the list has nothing to

do with us in fact despite pegasus's abuse the
NSO group consistently defend the software in

the same way they say that they provide authorized
governments with technology that helps them combat

Terror and crime naturally your feelings about
pegasus's use might depend on the extent of your

trust of various National governments but the
more skeptical experts point out that as well

as the NSO group app producers have a degree of
responsibility here they are after all providing

the apps that have security vulnerabilities to so
many mobile devices experts feel tech companies

rewards for finding such vulnerabilities are not
enough to compete with the black market values

of the same information Apple for example top out
their bug Bounty at two hundred thousand dollars

while the black market value of some bugs could
be in the millions as it has developed Pegasus

has expanded the amount of information that can be
accessed has expanded too and even includes access

to Wi-Fi passwords through a device a version that
targets Android phones has been found and dubbed

chrysal after pegasus's brother in the Greek myth
the list of countries where the software is used

or has been deployed is ever expanding the FBI
are thought to use the software in the US and

it's been found on the phones of several State
Department employees at least two EU officials

have been targeted while Israel's refusal to
sell the software to Ukraine to assist with

their defense against Russia is widely seen as
a sign of Israeli support for Russian leader of

Vladimir Putin naturally you might want to know
why such a thing is legal it's legal in most

places only where it is used with permission the
software has a genuine practical application it

could be on a government official's phone for
the purpose of recording their environment or

meetings for example enabling a simple smartphone
to appear normal while being used to protect or

take in information the fact that many uses of
the malware are illegal does not make Pegasus

itself illegal in principle the Silver Lining
to the story is that Amnesty International has

come up with a way of detecting Pegasus the
tool is explained thoroughly on the Amnesty

International website and is definitely worth
considering for anyone with serious worries the

tool copies the entire contents of a phone onto a
computer and then examines it for signs of Pegasus

some level of computing knowledge is helpful
but not necessary at the end of the day Pegasus

is a scary reminder that our private information
isn't as private as we might like to think it is