Embedded Files
Pegasus is the new God, and it is just sitting beside all of us. As the effects of Pegasus, comes to the forefront, the dynamics of human society, is going to change. It is no revelation, that all of us are under perpetual observation, by the supreme power of Pegasus.
Not many are presently concerned about the revelation of this new Godly, faceless, and clickless (without click), spyware. For now, it is a matter of just a few, who are potentially hacked.
How do we know, who has been? They are those who are on the list, exposed by ‘Forbidden Stories’ magazine. For the rest of the ordinary people, it is not worrisome.
Are others affected? They think they are not until they find out.
It is a good argument for today, to minuscule the matter. But the question is not about, who was spied upon, and why.
The significant issue is, about what happens in future.
With Pegasus story breaking each day, revealing the depth of its fangs, there are questions raised, on the ethics of government spying, on one’s innocent citizens.
Those who appear on the list, are not named criminals, terrorists or potential threat, to the country. Surprisingly, they are presidents, member of royal family, judges, peaceful activists, government ministers, political leaders, and other innocent leaders.
The interpretation of this practice is grave. It is an attack on their privacy, and an attempt to, secretly overtake one’s life. Sadly, the attacker with a weapon of spyware, is one’s government.
Spying on harmful elements, is nothing new, if it is in the interest of law and order, national security, and proactively keeping the enemy, at bay.
Even digital spying, by the government is known to happen via phone tapping, and data breaches. But, always, they are authorised, by the legislature for legitimate purposes.
Pegasus is nothing close, to this objective, although it is claimed to be used, only by the governments. In reality, it comes out to be a tool, used by a private individual, who happens to be in power.
As the Pegasus list reveals, the spyware was potentially used, for malicious purposes. It was mass surveillance, to collect private information, to be used in future to leverage.
The targets were only innocent citizens, of one’s own country as well as innocent foreigners.
In this part of our discussion, let focus on domestic spying. If an individual is spied upon, there is a purpose, like preventing crime or collecting evidence for legal matters.
Otherwise on a mass scale, gathering information for domestic purposes is officially based on statistical methods and profiling of a society.
National identity documents, bank details, education, work status, address and others are used. An individual was just a statistical number.
With Pegasus, an individual is a single precise target, collecting all possible private information. They include social interactions, through chats and calls, passwords, personal networks, audio-visuals of actions.
In a way, the spyware is collecting, every second in one’s life. If analysed, one can identify, an individual’s deep-seated thought process.
Still dangerous is, the information collected is shared, analysed, and actions of those individuals, are potentially controlled. Imagine the governments collecting all this information, for the duration of individual's lifetime.
The individual is then at a serious risk of getting targeted surgically, by the handlers, which happens to be the owner of spyware.
If the information collected is widespread, for most of the population, which is possible in this digital era, then someone can effortlessly start playing God.
It is this powerful capability in the hands of anyone that is perilous.
From outside the border, foreign governments are also doing the same. As we came to know, allegedly a government used the Pegasus spyware, on the smartphone of the president of another powerful G7 nation, France.
The country is standing exposed, and so is the G7. We never know, for how long the French president was being spied. Only time will tell, to what extent the G7, European Union and French strategies, have fallen into the wrong hands.
If G7 and EU can be compromised, today the global security risk is at its peak.
No one is left untouched, rich, or powerful alike, are victims of spyware malpractice.
Another dimension of Pegasus is, its digital architecture. The server, where the information resides, is in Israel and not in the customer's country.
It is up to the discretion of Israel, to retain it, share it, with other international agencies, leverage it or destroy it. This is only a speculation based on universal knowledge of architecture.
For now, the Pegasus spyware, is used by privilege few governments. Sooner, the cheaper versions of spyware, will be used by all governments, both on their citizens, and upon foreigners.
The devices used to snoop, could be television sets, mobiles, computers, vehicles, wifi-routers, fridges, lights, and any device on Internet-of-things (IoT). Spying will be easy and limitless.
Anybody can run this collection to an artificial intelligence algorithm, and they will get a profile for, a category of people. The person of interest can be a target, irrespective of their geographical location.
The governments can then run secret programs, to start blocking, or feeding an objective message through their social network, social media, or use of law enforcement agencies.
The scale of surveillance, and its complication can be termed, incomprehensible. Instead, it will not be wrong to say, that the lives of all the citizens, regardless of the country they belong to, will change dramatically, and dangerously. The bad news is that nobody can stop it.
There are multiple reasons, to term our future as dramatic, and dangerous.
Something premium and exclusive today, will be readily available tomorrow. For example, twenty years ago, mobile was a premium possession.
Then, it was a niche, and to own a mobile, was for the rich, powerful and famous. Today, it is a commodity, and the life of billions of ordinary people, cannot be imagined, without a smartphone.
The same has been the case with cars, television sets, commercial flights, computers etc. With this trend, spyware like Pegasus will soon be available, certainly, for all governments to use, against its citizens, and globally on others .
Just a phone number, is all it will take to capture one’s data. Either, the governments will procure it or code it themselves, depending on their capabilities.
It will not be surprising, after the story of Pegasus broke, if many governments have not already put their best brains, to code Pegasus like spyware.
The game to directly control own population, and that of the others has openly begun.
Someone in a remote part, of a lesser-known country, name of the country, which is out of our common knowledge, can own our digital life. No jurisdiction will prevail. A missed call is all that is required, and without a click, that faceless will start playing God.
There is another side too.
For the innocent, there is nothing to worry about. It is only for those who have a shady side; they will be threatened to get blackmailed or exposed.
Will, the world be a better place, depends on who has more consequential information, about others? As a big picture, the ordinary people, are already spied at a universal scale.
Why not make it legal? Let all smartphones be preinstalled, with Pegasus type spyware, and the data collected to be shared, in the public domain.
Something like, our profiles of Facebook. Everyone will try to be happy and philanthropic. Only that, with Pegasus, they have to be honest.
Though it is a flight of fantasy, nothing stops us from evaluating the idea, if it makes the world a safer place. A similar attempt is already made with blockchain technology, too.
Pegasus has refined the art of spying, from tracking people to playing God. Anyone can be controlled, by someone, who has the power of Pegasus. It is a scary future; we all are going to live in.
Is Pegasus only a tool to collect information for someone else? Who is that faceless? Only the future beholds.
For now, the world doesn’t feel free anymore. It is indisputable, that someone is watching us all, so is also the fear, that someone may take over our lives, as God.
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