The book is a behind the scenes look of Pegasus Project, an investigative piece of journalism that exposed the prolific use of NSO Group’s cyber surveillance tool Pegasus against independent journalists, activists, dissidents, civil rights attorneys, and political figures.
This is an extensive work with credible sources and provides a peek into dystopian reality that cyber surveillance is shaping. This is not a cautionary tale but the reality that every individual needs to be aware of and not take for granted. As technology becomes central to our lives, the barriers to privacy are lowered. This tool is not an anomaly but the future that awaits us. “…any technology bestowed as a tool of liberation could also be turned into a tool of repression.”
My only disappointment in this book is how little of the technology behind Pegasus is actually explored. I wish the authors had one of the researchers from Security Lab of Amnesty International that created the forensic tool that exposed the presence of Pegasus on iPhone or Android phones write at least a chapter or two on how the zero-click infection was achieved.
This is extremely important book for people to read in order to understand the warning signs of when the government is taking steps to silence or smear the journalists that are exposing their corruption and ineptitude.