Global Spyware Industry

Technology remains strong despite growing evidence that governments worldwide have abused spyware by targeting dissidents and critics. Spyware is a type of malicious software designed to monitor a user's activity without their knowledge or consent.

Spyware is used to collect sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, and transmit it to third parties. There are about dozens of spywares available across the globe today like, Pegasus. As the adoption of Spyware increases the market has pegged to reach $12 billion.

A recent report says, Pegasus can turn phones into surveillance devices and can hoover up encrypted WhatsApp and Signal messages surreptitiously. Pegasus-style spyware attack hits politicians and journalists, via iPhone exploits.

The fear of Pegasus-style spyware attack resurfaced recently after researchers at Microsoft and the digital rights group Citizen Lab identified new victims in North America, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East -- once again from an Israel-based spyware maker.

A recently suspected exploit, which we call 'END OF DAYS', appears to make use of invisible iCloud calendar invitations sent from the spyware's operator to victims," said Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto's Munk School.

Microsoft Threat Intelligence analysts named the threat group as "DEV-0196" linked to Israel-based private sector offensive actor (PSOA) known as QuaDream.

QuaDream reportedly sells a platform they call REIGN to governments for law enforcement purposes. REIGN is a suite of exploits, malware, and infrastructure designed to exfiltrate data from mobile devices. QuaDream has had a partnership with a Cypriot company called InReach, with whom it is currently embroiled in a legal dispute.

It is important to note that the use of spyware has serious ethical and legal implications, and can cause significant harm to individuals and businesses.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA