Pegasus cover art

Pegasus

The Story of the World's Most Dangerous Spyware

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Pegasus

By: Laurent Richard, Sandrine Rigaud
Narrated by: Andrew Wehrlen, Rachel Maddow, Rachel Perry
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

'A must-read' – New Scientist

The gripping, behind-the scenes story of one of the most sophisticated surveillance weapons ever created – and an existential threat to democracy and human rights.


'Absorbing . . . a celebration of journalism' The Guardian

Pegasus is widely regarded as the most powerful cyber-surveillance system on the market – available to any government that can afford its multimillion-dollar price tag. The system’s creator, the NSO group, a private corporation headquartered in Israel, boasts about its ability to thwart terrorists and criminals.

But the Pegasus system doesn’t only catch terrorists and criminals.

Pegasus has been used by repressive regimes to spy on thousands of innocent people around the world: heads of state, diplomats, human rights defenders, lawyers, political opponents, and journalists.

Virtually undetectable, the system can track a person’s daily movement in real time, gain control of the device’s microphones and cameras at will, and capture all videos, photos, emails, texts, and passwords – encrypted or not. Its full reach is not even known.

This is the gripping story of how Pegasus was uncovered, written by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud, the two intrepid reporters who revealed the scandal in collaboration with an international consortium of journalists. Their findings shook the world.

Tense and compelling, Pegasus reveals how thousands of lives have been turned upside down by this unprecedented threat, and exposes the chilling new ways governments and corporations are laying waste to human rights – and silencing innocent citizens.

©2023 Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud (P)2023 Macmillan Publishers International Limited
Freedom & Security Politics & Government Social Sciences True Crime Espionage Middle East Surveillance Human Rights Iran

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Ransomware Hunting Team cover art
How I Rob Banks cover art
The Lazarus Heist cover art
Ghost in the Wires cover art
If It's Smart, It's Vulnerable cover art
Crime Dot Com cover art
The Cuckoo's Egg cover art
Snowden's Box cover art
Lucifer’s Banker Uncensored cover art
Countdown to Zero Day cover art
The Art of Invisibility cover art
Cult of the Dead Cow cover art
Spam Nation cover art
A Hacker's Mind cover art
The Real Anthony Fauci cover art
Faucian Bargain cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
There was nothing I disliked about this book EXCEPT that purchase and use hasn’t been made a crime.
That user names haven’t been published and complicity in the crimes perpetrated by users hasn’t resulted in more prosecutions.

Superb vol 2 please.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is a good story about exposing the spyware developed and sold by NSO and I enjoyed learning about the forensic methodology used to confirm infections. On the whole this is a worthwhile listen but be prepared for a lot of extraneous information and detail which in all honesty isn’t needed. I understand the authors wanted to give the backstory for a number of courageous characters in the plot but I felt this could have been done in a more succinct way. I found the backstory stories went on a bit and I lost where I was in the story. I must confess I fast forwarded some of them towards to the end.

Interesting story but a lot of extraneous detail

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The Pegasus story is easily found in old newspapers of a couple of years ago and hardly needs repeating here. The book describes something different which was the planning and execution of the investigative group which was passed anonymously a 50,000 long list of supposedly hacked phone numbers and the subsequent efforts they made to identify the owners of those numbers, then further persuade them to allow all their private phones contents to be downloaded for inspection. Especially when some were politicians, celebs, political activists in authoritarian countries etc. and were understandably most reluctant to cooperate. A nice blend of human stories and technical details on web sites and phone software.
I found reader Andrew Wehrlen’s middish-Atlantic accent a bit hard to understand and played it 90% speed.

A real life detective story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Pegasus delivers eye-opening investigative work. Though lengthy at times, it's a disturbing yet essential read, showcasing the high calibre of journalists exposing critical surveillance issues.

Everyone should read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This was good listen and I enjoyed it but the premise was a bit naive. Technology is constantly advancing and Israel is at the forefront - deservedly so because they work the hardest at it. Computer hacking has become an an indispensible weapon worldwide - fact. Human rights is this book's issue but like all aspects of defence whether it's self-defence or nuclear conflict there will always be winners and losers. If countries buy technology they will use it as they see fit to protect their interests. Just because their morality does not meet our standards does not mean they are wrong. Gentlemanly warfare has never really won anything. This book is mainly about NSO an Israeli IT company and no country knows more about fighting oppression than Israel. This book left me firmly in the pro-Israel camp.

Interesting book but .......

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

The synopsis of the book may be misleading as one would be eagerly listening for the bombshells of spyware stories from the get go. But the first half of the book is about the heroics of journalism and the description of the background against which the story of pegasus unfolds. Once I understood this, it becomes a book worth paying attention to. After all, good journalism needs some TLC sometimes.

Enlightening even with a pinch of salt

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Like most books I listen to I'm a little late to the party. As it is this book is a few years old now. What isn't out of date is the tireless work of journalists who bring these stories into the public domain. For that reason this book stands and will stand the test of time. If you know the story of Pegasus then now is the time to find out how you know.

Tireless Messengers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is scary stuff but I bet Oxfordshire Council wants it!!!!! This is all about Mass surveillance on an industrial scale but for money and power, not our security.

Oxford Councils Wish list

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This book allows you to appreciate the importance of investigative journalists around the world and the risks that they are exposed to each day.

Great story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I’m a big fan of these types of books usually. For example I’ve read/listened to count down to zero day, tracers in the dark, this is how they tell me the world ends…

Unfortunately, this was just simply boring. Its written with wayyy to much focus on the journalism rather than what this book is called - Pegasus. Endless talking about keeping the source safe, passing this document here, meeting here, talking to this guy, meeting with this guy. It just doesn’t make for a good story because it’s so dragged out.

If it contained half as much talk about journalism and replaced it with info about Pegasus then it would be way better.

Another gripe I have is that the ‘laurent’ speaker is so hard to understand. His voice is gravely and all the words just blend into one. I found myself straining trying to understand what he was saying.

Shame really, I was looking forward to it!

Unfortunately boring

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews