| The inside story of how the world’s most notorious commercial-spyware company has developed “zero-click” exploits to steal data from activists, journalists, and government officials without their knowledge.  Illustration by Timo Lenzen Hacking attempts can arrive in many forms. Some appear in text messages, or require a click on a link. But others “operate with no action from the user”—silently, and insidiously. As Ronan Farrow reports, in a groundbreaking investigation in this week’s issue, a conflict is raging between the Israeli firm NSO Group, which has created a powerful piece of commercial spyware known as Pegasus, and big tech companies such as Meta and Apple. In the course of roughly three years, Farrow gained unprecedented access to NSO’s staff, offices, and technology. He writes that “NSO sees itself as a type of arms dealer, operating in a field without established norms.” Pegasus was allegedly used to monitor phones belonging to associates of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian journalist who was murdered in 2018. It has also been used against U.S. officials working abroad; to infect a device connected to the network at 10 Downing Street, the office of the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson; and in a cluster of attacks targeting the phones of Catalan politicians, lawyers, and activists. Farrow talks with the engineers from Apple and Meta who are on the front lines of defending popular services such as iMessage and WhatsApp from intrusion, knowing that the next hole in the system is just waiting to be discovered by the spyware—one NSO employee tells Farrow, “It’s a cat-and-mouse game.” —Jessie Li, newsletter editor | 
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