Should Pegasus Be Allowed By International Law?

Pegasus is an advanced spyware developed by an Israeli company that manages to bypass most

security protocols. Pegasus will surely have detrimental effects on the freedom of people across the globe

for years to come, we have already glimpsed into the frightening possibilities. Pegasus, a counter

terrorism software developed by NSO cyber security group in Isreal, has been used to target reporters and

political dissidents.

Pegasus software was created by the Israeli firm, NSO Group, on January 25, 2010. This creates a

motive for cyber security to target and silence people. In 2021, the article by Chris Yang, published by the

United Nations addressed the human-rights violations against journalists. Yang’s perspective on Pegasus,

is that the spyware could lead to a misuse of technology, and threatens to undermine the personal rights of

journalists. Yang supports his idea by reporting a suspected leak from a list of 50,000 phone numbers that

allegedly came from people of interest. Meaning, 50,000 people were threatened by Pegasus spyware

(Yang). The extent of threat one faces is the alarming intrusion that governments can access. For instance,

Pegasus spyware can wiretap device cameras, track locations, control real time surveillance, and

download every contact or message, in order to gather knowledge on an individual. This technology is

potentially bad because it is a given opportunity to ruin a person’s reputation, and ultimately jeopardize

one’s career and life. However, in support of this technology, the oppositional logic that can justify the use

of this spyware, is the extremism of any investigation related to serious crimes and security threats. Even

the NSO Group, creators of Pegasus made a claim that,“Their mission is to help make the world a safer

place, by providing authorized governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime,”

but then continued to say, “the company does NOT operate any of its systems,”(Scott-Railton 10).This

statement generally implies that the company does not surveil the governments use of their technology,

which is continuously being abused in order to violate someone’s celluar privacy. Meaning, the NSO
Group released this technology with the knowledge that international governments will abuse it, but won’t

regulate or limit the technology's possibilities, even if it is used inappropriately.

Pegasus has been used across the Middle East and the Americas to target reporters and advocates

for free speech. It has come to attention that journalists worldwide get exploited, from their personal

interest of uncovering governmental truth. This creates a motive for cyber security to target and silence

journalists. In 2021, the article by Chris Yang, published by the United Nations addressed the

human-rights violations against journalists. He analyzed, “Surveillance software has been linked to the

arrest, intimidation and even killing of journalists and human rights defenders, according to the senior UN

official,”(Yang). The ongoing targeting towards journalists can be observed by the various cases conducted

by Citizen Lab, a laboratory based in Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. A major case in

February 2017, analyzed the devices of 10 Mexican journalists and human rights defenders, and one

minor child. Citizen Lab discovered each person was individually targeted by Pegasus, stating, “The

targets received SMS messages that included links to NSO exploits paired with troubling personal and

sexual taunts, messages impersonating official communications by the Embassy of the United States in

Mexico, fake AMBER Alerts, warnings of kidnappings, and other threats,”(Scott-Railton 8). However this

is just one out of many cases against journalists. A major offense involving a child of a person of interest

occurred in 2016, when threats were made to the son of Carmen Aristegui, an investigative journalist

reporting on corrupt Mexican officials. Her son recieved 25 messages containing NSO links along with

sexual taunts and location tracking, within the boarders of the United States. In the situation that a minor

was targeted by the spyware infringed human-rights laws within the United States, and international laws

as well. Approximately, 53% of the 426 cases of violence against journalists have been linked to Mexican

officials (Scott-Railton 11). Meaning, with the complicite use of Pegasus spyware, the acts of violence

targeted at journalists were made possible in order to silence them. Negligence towards journalists and

their privacy has constantly been ignored to the extent children of their own face the consequences of

governmental censorship.
 Pegasus has been used as a tool for silencing political oppositions. About 175 political dissidents

have been targeted by the NSO Group’s spyware since 2016, worldwide. Numbers of dissident targets will

inevitably increase for the pace of technology advances everyday. Neri Zilber, author of the article,

Hackers For Hire, published in 2018, provided the perspective of an Israeli digital security consultant,

regarding the chance of a cyber attack for political dissidents. Gabriel Avner, the digital security

consultant stated, “A decade in tech is an eternity,”(Zilber 62). Avner raised concerns about how

technology is weaving more and more into everyday life, from the various installations of computers into

fridges, microwaves, cars, and personal devices. Avner and other technology experts worry that the

violation of human rights relating to journalists and dissidents in general will be more at risk of violent

attacks due to, what Zilber describes as, “proliferation”, of the internet of things. One case affected by

Pegasus spyware contained a dissident organization that challenged the Mexican legislation. The Mexican

Institute for Competitiveness continuously went against the grain, participating in policy engagement, anti

corruption, and activism, being vital to their work. Director Juan Pardinas and Investigator, Alexandra

Zapata were directly targeted by Pegasus, each of their inboxes containing links of the NSO software,

resulting in threatening messages to their staff, and a message warning of armed men outside of one of

their personal homes, (Zilber). Because of their roles in such a progressive organization, these individuals

were targeted to silence their initial cause.

The NSO Group spyware, Pegasus, is kept surreptitious, since the software is abused by people in

positions of power. Pegasus’s malicious ability to subsequently falsify its identity in order to wiretap into

a person of interest’s phone, can not only do damage to the person being targeted, but to societies as a

whole. Threats towards investigative journalists and political dissidents include fake AMBER alerts,

exploitation of personal data, crude accusations, and false information about colleagues, fundamentally

violates the human-right and in many cases, extends threats to the physical realm. David Kaye, from the

School Of Law, at the University of California, proves that this spyware specifically violates human-rights

internationally. From the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in Article 17, he quotes,
““Article 17 prohibits “arbitrary or unlawful interference with [one’s] privacy, family, home or

correspondence” and “unlawful attacks on [one’s] honour and reputation”, and it guarantees to everyone

“the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks,””(Kaye 10). It can be inferred

that the NSO Group’s spyware, Pegasus, has in fact violated the international standard, referencing

human-rights. Due to the diversified nature of each lab report held by Citizen Lab, the cases of journalists

and dissidents can further determine that Pegasus is a software that will be inescapably abused, and

should no longer be consumed by governments worldwide.

Work Cited

Kaye, David. " The Spyware State and the Prospects for Accountability". Global Governance: A Review

of Multilateralism and International Organizations 27 April, 2021: 483-492. Accessed 2 Feb,

2022.

Krack, Noémie. “The Myth of Pegasus: Journalists' Safety And Press Freedom A Modern Chimaera?”

CiTiP Blog, July, 2021. Accessed 31 Jan, 2022.

Scott-Railton, John, Marczak, Bill, Razzak A. Bahr, Crete-Nishihata, Masashi, Deibert, Ron.

“RECKLESS EXPLOIT Mexican Journalists, Lawyers, and a Child Targeted with NSO

Spyware.” Munk School Of Global Affairs and Public Policy, 19 June, 2017. Accessed 31 Jan

2022.

Yang, Chris. “Pegasus: Human Rights-Compliant Laws Needed To Regulate Spyware.” UN News, 19 Jul,

2021. Accessed 31 Jan 2022.

Zilber, Neri. “HACKERS FOR HIRE.” Foreign Policy, no. 230, Slate Group, LLC, 2018, pp. 60–64.

Accessed 1 Feb, 2022.