The article continues and anyone interested in technical details can look at this link.FP wrote: When a government seeks to rein in a political opponent by listening in on his calls, reading his text messages, and spying on his meetings, how do they go about doing so? In the case of the United Arab Emirates and pro-democracy activist Ahmed Mansoor, they sent him a short text message.
“New secrets about torture of Emiratis in state prisons,” the Aug. 10 and 11 SMS messages to Mansoor read. The texts included a link, and had Mansoor clicked it, his phone would have turned into a powerful surveillance tool for an entity that researchers believe is the Emirati government. Pegasus, the software used against Mansoor, allows its operator to record phone calls and intercept text messages, including those made or sent on nominally encrypted apps such as Viber and WhatsApp. It can mine contact books and read emails. The software can also track its subject’s movements and even remotely turn on the phone’s camera and microphone.
I find it interesting that today, any 3rd rate country can build up a technical surveillance organisation that would have the Russians or East Germans ecstatic yet it doesn't seem like you can hire actual analysts to do the thinking for you. On the other hand, it's quite heartening to see how most American tech companies are actively avoiding helping the government and making it far harder for countries like the UAE to keep track of their citizens.
It's an interesting arms race technically but it seems to be a losing proposition on the policy level, as self-censorship really is flourishing. Or maybe I lack perspective and things are getting better.
On a quite personal note, I have a huge measure of schadenfreude and I hope that company goes down in flames and frees up all the people working there to work for better places.
