Receiving a message is sometimes enough to install malware on your device.
Pegasus had infected the smartphones of certain journalists, activists, and politicians, according to experts in July 2021.
Pegasus’ lethality comes from the fact that it is activated without the user’s involvement. In certain circumstances, simply receiving a message is enough to install the spyware, which gives the hacker complete control over the device and its data once installed.
Pegasus is, of course, targeted spyware, and Apple has most likely included a patch in the iOS 14.7.1 version (but unofficially).
However, there is now a simple technique to know if your iPhone or iPad is infected with the Pegasus spyware. iMazing, a third-party iPhone and iPad management application, has introduced a spyware detection option for free in version 2.14 of the software.
If you get a positive result, iMazing recommends turning off your smartphone and removing the SIM card right away, especially if you or your family members are politically involved in a way that could place you in danger in your region. You can then take steps to remove the virus, such as restoring from an older backup (and analyzing it to ensure it isn’t infected as well) or erasing all of your data off the device and starting over.
Then, by pressing the “Next” button three times, follow the wizard’s instructions to download the necessary data and agree to the terms. Click the “Start Analysis” button to start the process.
The iMazing software will download the information, create a backup of your iPhone or iPad, and begin a spyware scan. This could take some time; during testing, saving the backup took roughly 30 minutes. iMazing will prompt you to input the backup encryption password (if you’ve set one up) and start to work after the backup is complete.
iMazing will scan the data on your iPhone or iPad, which could take 5–10 minutes. When the analysis is done, iMazing will display the results in an easy-to-understand format. For example, after our scan, we received nine warnings, but there were no indicators of malware or spyware infection.
