There is a vulnerability on WhatsApp that could allow hackers to send spyware to mobile phones, which is exploitable in the audio call feature of the app. The spyware is called ‘Pegasus’ - traced to the Israeli cyber-intelligence company, NSO, and its fully capable of infiltrating all mobile phones, including iOS and Android devices, with the messaging app.
It was specifically targeted at a London lawyer involved in lawsuits that accused the Israeli Group of providing tools to hack the mobile phones of Omar Abdulaziz, a Saudi dissident in Canada; and also a group of Mexican activists, which according to the researchers, made up the list of the initial targets.
The vulnerability in WhatsApp aided the group to insert malicious code that steal data from the target phone by simply placing a call through the messaging app, and it is even portent when the target fails to pick up the call.
According to WhatsApp researchers, the NSO Group operated the spyware in secret for years, and it was only discovered in 2016 on the iPhone of a now-jailed human-rights activist in the UAE through an undisclosed Apple security vulnerabilities. WhatsApp had promptly responded by issuing a fix as soon as they discovered the flaw, and have recommended that its users should update to the latest version of the messaging app.
The company had also alerted the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) about the attack, which was as a result of the WhatsApp flaw first reported by The Financial Times.
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