The Sunday Read: 'The Battle for the World’s Most Powerful Cyberweapon'
The Daily27 Feb 2022

The Sunday Read: 'The Battle for the World’s Most Powerful Cyberweapon'

Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti investigate Pegasus, an Israeli spying tool that was acquired for use by the F.B.I., and which the United States government is now trying to ban.

Pegasus is used globally. For nearly a decade, NSO, an Israeli firm, had been selling this surveillance software on a subscription basis to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, promising to consistently and reliably crack the encrypted communications of any iPhone or Android smartphone.

The software has helped the authorities capture drug lords, thwart terrorist plots, fight organized crime, and, in one case, take down a global child-abuse ring, identifying suspects in more than 40 countries. But it has been prone to abuses of power: The Mexican government deployed Pegasus against journalists and political dissidents; and it was used to intercept communications with Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, whom Saudi operatives killed and dismembered in Istanbul in 2018.

Cyberweapons are here to stay — but their legacy is still to be determined.

This story was written by Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Episoder(2751)

The Editor Who Was Accidentally Texted War Plans

The Editor Who Was Accidentally Texted War Plans

This week, top Trump officials inadvertently shared secret U.S. military plans with a prominent journalist after mistakenly adding him to a group chat.The journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, who is editor i...

26 Mar 202538min

Nixon Dreamed of Breaking the Media. Trump Is Doing It.

Nixon Dreamed of Breaking the Media. Trump Is Doing It.

As President Trump set out to systematically eliminate or intimidate those who stood in his way — inspectors general, judges, law firms — the news media loomed as one of his most stubborn obstacles. O...

25 Mar 202545min

Trump’s Escalating War With Higher Education

Trump’s Escalating War With Higher Education

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has put the American university system on notice.It has pressed for changes, opened investigations — and in some cases withheld critical funds.Alan Blinder, w...

24 Mar 202527min

The Sunday Read: ‘What I Found on the 365-Mile Trail of a Lost Folk Hero’

The Sunday Read: ‘What I Found on the 365-Mile Trail of a Lost Folk Hero’

Sometime in the 1850s or ’60s, at a terrible moment in U.S. history, a strange man seemed to sprout, out of nowhere, into the rocky landscape between New York City and Hartford, Conn. The word “strang...

23 Mar 202551min

'The Interview': Dr. Lindsay Gibson on What We Owe Our 'Emotionally Immature' Parents

'The Interview': Dr. Lindsay Gibson on What We Owe Our 'Emotionally Immature' Parents

The clinical psychologist explains the foundations of egocentric parental behavior, the impact it has on their children and the freedom of saying “no.” Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Ap...

22 Mar 202543min

Why a Worrisome Economy Doesn’t Seem to Worry Trump

Why a Worrisome Economy Doesn’t Seem to Worry Trump

As President Trump has rolled out his economic agenda, the assumption has been that he would quickly scale back his most aggressive policies once they began to scare consumers and the financial market...

21 Mar 202530min

Were the Covid Lockdowns Worth It?

Were the Covid Lockdowns Worth It?

Five years ago, at the urging of federal officials, much of the United States locked down to stop the spread of Covid. Over time, the action polarized the country and changed the relationship between ...

20 Mar 202549min

Trump’s Showdown With the Courts

Trump’s Showdown With the Courts

President Trump’s showdown with the courts reached a new milestone on Tuesday, when he called for a federal judge to be impeached and the chief justice of the Supreme Court publicly scolded the presid...

19 Mar 202530min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
aftenpodden-usa
forklart
stopp-verden
popradet
det-store-bildet
dine-penger-pengeradet
rss-gukild-johaug
bt-dokumentar-2
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
hanna-de-heldige
fotballpodden-2
nokon-ma-ga
e24-podden
frokostshowet-pa-p5
aftenbla-bla
rss-ness
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
rss-dannet-uten-piano