How a spy in your pocket threatens the end of privacy, dignity, and democracy. Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud, co-founders of Forbidden Stories, expose the Pegasus spyware — developed by Israel's NSO Group — and how it has been used by authoritarian regimes to surveil journalists, activists, dissidents, and even heads of state. A chilling investigation into the weaponization of zero-click exploits.
In 2021, a leaked list of 50,000 phone numbers exposed the global reach of Pegasus. The numbers belonged to journalists, human rights lawyers, opposition politicians, and business leaders across dozens of countries. This leak, obtained by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, became the thread that unraveled the spyware's secret operations and sparked an international outcry.
Pegasus didn't need you to click a link or open an attachment. Using zero-click exploits — flaws in iOS and Android that NSO weaponized — the spyware could infect a phone silently. Once installed, it harvested messages, emails, calls, passwords, photos, and even turned on the microphone and camera remotely. There was no warning, no suspicious link to ignore.
NSO Group marketed Pegasus as a tool for fighting terrorism and crime. In reality, it sold licenses to authoritarian governments who used it against their own citizens. The book traces how NSO's sales pitches, government contracts, and denials formed a pattern: claim oversight, deny abuses, then remain silent when evidence of human rights violations emerged. The company operated in a regulatory grey zone with little accountability.
The targets read like a who's-who of independent voices: Jamal Khashoggi's family, Mexican journalists investigating drug cartels, Moroccan activists, Indian human rights lawyers, and even the cellphones of world leaders. The book reveals how surveillance is no longer limited to state secrets — it's a commodity traded on a global market, and anyone with a dissenting opinion can become a target.
Richard and Rigaud founded Forbidden Stories on a powerful premise: when journalists are silenced, their work should be continued by others. The book is both an exposé and a testament to collaborative journalism. The Pegasus Project involved over 80 journalists from 17 media outlets working together to verify numbers, interview targets, and piece together the global picture — proving that the truth can survive even the most sophisticated surveillance.