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Yes. U.S. government records and independent forensic investigations show that Pegasus, the mobile spyware supplied by Israel-based NSO Group to government customers, has been used or selected against government officials, heads of state, diplomats and other politically sensitive people. However, a phone number on a target list is evidence of interest or selection—not automatic proof that the device was infected.
What Pegasus is and who operates it
Pegasus is a mobile-spyware platform developed and supplied by NSO Group, an Israel-based company. NSO builds the attack components, infection vectors, anonymization infrastructure and customer-facing tools; a government customer operates the system against its own targets.
In 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce added NSO Group to its Entity List, saying the company supplied spyware to foreign governments that used it to “maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers.” A U.S. State Department spokesperson made the same point in a 3 November 2021 briefing: “NSO Group developed and supplied this tool – so Pegasus, as it’s known – to governments that used it to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy personnel.”
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The public record contains several kinds of evidence. The cases below should not be treated as equivalent: selection of a number, evidence of an attempted attack and device-level forensic confirmation answer different questions.
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| Case and date | People or roles | Evidence described publicly | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pegasus Project, 2021 | 14 heads of state, including Emmanuel Macron, Imran Khan and Cyril Ramaphosa, plus hundreds of government officials | Phone numbers were selected as people of interest by NSO clients | Government customers considered senior officials potential targets; selection alone does not prove infection |
| Armenia, October 2020–December 2022 | At least 12 Armenian public figures and officials, including the Human Rights Defender, a United Nations official and a former Foreign Ministry spokesperson | Amnesty International investigation during and after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict | Politically sensitive officials and civil-society figures were targeted in a conflict-related period |
| Citizen Lab mapping, 2018 | Civil-society groups, human-rights defenders, lawyers, politicians and journalists in multiple countries | Suspected Pegasus operations mapped to 45 countries and at least 33 likely NSO customers | The platform had a broad international government-customer footprint at that time; these figures are not a current global census |
The 2021 head-of-state findings identify people whose numbers were selected as potential targets. They do not, by themselves, establish that every listed phone was compromised. Stronger conclusions require traces recovered from the device or a technically documented attack.
Can Pegasus hack military or defense phones?
It can target a military or defense official when that person falls within a government customer’s target set. A defense ministry, armed-forces headquarters, diplomatic mission or military contractor may hold information a customer wants to collect, but the publicly available investigations do not provide one authoritative worldwide total for military personnel targeted by Pegasus.
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That distinction matters. Public sources establish a government intelligence and law-enforcement customer model and document attacks on senior officials, including during conflict-related periods. They do not support a precise claim such as “Pegasus has infected a specific percentage of military phones” or a definitive worldwide count of military victims.
Three levels of evidence: selection, attack and compromise
1. Selection or listing
A leaked list or investigation may show that a phone number was entered into a customer’s system or treated as a person of interest. This indicates intent or interest, but it does not show that Pegasus reached the phone, bypassed its defenses or extracted data.
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2. An attempted infection
Network records, suspicious messages, links or infrastructure associated with Pegasus can indicate that an operator tried to deliver the spyware. An attempt can fail because of a patched operating system, an incompatible device, a blocked connection or user behavior.
3. Device-level forensic confirmation
Forensic examination can find artifacts associated with Pegasus on the phone or in a device backup. This is the strongest category among the three, although investigators still need to state what was found, when it was found and how confidently it links the artifact to Pegasus.
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Attribution can remain uncertain even when investigators connect activity to Pegasus infrastructure. A responsible report names the investigator’s confidence level, the date of the finding and whether a particular government operator was identified.
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Pegasus capabilities and delivery infrastructure change over time, so no single attack method is universal. Amnesty International’s forensic methodology covers attacks from 2014 through July 2021 and documents changing domains, servers and delivery infrastructure, including an excerpt containing more than 600 Pegasus-related domains.
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Later technical analysis describes an integrated system of exploits or other infection vectors, anonymization servers and operator tooling. In practical terms, an operator may try to deliver spyware through a crafted message, a link, a service interaction or another software vulnerability; the available method depends on the device, operating-system version and infrastructure in use at that time. Public descriptions are intentionally high-level because the specific exploit chain can change and may be withheld.
How to check whether a phone may have Pegasus
Amnesty International publishes a forensic methodology and the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT) for examining mobile devices for indicators associated with Pegasus. MVT is an investigative aid, not a guarantee of safety.
- Preserve the device and relevant records. Avoid deleting messages, resetting the phone or changing accounts before a qualified examiner advises you; those actions can remove evidence.
- Secure a lawful device image or backup. The available evidence depends on whether investigators can access the phone, obtain a compatible backup and work with the operating-system version.
- Run an indicator-based examination. An examiner compares device and backup data with known Pegasus-related indicators and checks for suspicious artifacts described in the methodology.
- Interpret the result cautiously. A positive finding may support attempted or successful compromise, depending on the artifact. A negative or inconclusive result does not prove that the phone was never selected or attacked.
- Escalate credible cases. Government officials, diplomats, military personnel and others facing a serious threat should use qualified digital-security or mobile-forensics assistance rather than relying on a consumer antivirus scan.
What a Pegasus list can—and cannot—tell you
- It can indicate: that a customer treated a number as a potential target or person of interest.
- It cannot establish by itself: that the phone owner was monitored, that the spyware installed successfully, what data was collected or which government selected the number.
- It becomes stronger evidence when combined with: device artifacts, a documented attack path, timestamps, infrastructure analysis and an attribution assessment from a qualified investigator.
How broad is the known government use?
Citizen Lab’s 2018 research mapped suspected Pegasus operations in 45 countries to at least 33 likely NSO customers and documented apparent abuse against politicians, lawyers, journalists and human-rights defenders. Those figures describe findings available in 2018; they are not a current count of every customer or operation.
Likewise, the 2021 Pegasus Project list and the Armenian investigation demonstrate that officials can be selected or attacked, but they do not measure the prevalence of Pegasus across all governments, armed forces or ministries. Public reporting is shaped by leaked data, available devices and the indicators investigators can recover.
Quick Recap
Practical implications for officials and high-risk organizations
- Treat an unexpected message, link or account-recovery prompt as potentially hostile, especially when it concerns travel, negotiations, security incidents or political activity.
- Keep the operating system and applications on supported, current versions, because exploitability depends partly on unpatched software.
- Separate highly sensitive work from ordinary personal use where organizational policy allows, and limit the amount of confidential material stored on a mobile device.
- Establish an incident-response contact before an incident occurs so a suspected device can be preserved and examined quickly.
- Do not infer safety solely from the absence of a warning, a clean consumer scan or a number’s absence from a published list.
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