Journalist Galina Timchenko, who has been confirmed to have Pegasus installed on her mobile, is one of the founders of the independent Russian news site Meduza.
The software was developed by the Israeli company NSO Group and can be installed on people’s mobile phones covertly, after which it starts collecting information and eavesdropping on the microphone and camera.
The software is believed to have been installed in February when Galina Timchenko was in Germany for a meeting with other Russian journalists, writes The Washington Post.
The organizations Access now, which works for digital rights, and the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto have been able to establish that the mobile phone has been infected. Apple alerted Timjenko during the summer that spyware might have been installed on her iPhone.
Analysts have not been able to determine who is behind the installation.
NSO has previously stated that Pegasus licenses have only been sold to governments. However, the Russian government is not a client of NSO, states an anonymous source with access to the newspaper, but Russia and several neighboring countries are, according to analysts, among those who may have been behind the installation, the newspaper writes.