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Germany's IT security authority in Bonn: "The threat potential is to be assessed as high"
Photo: Andreas Rentz / Getty Images
The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) reacted to the revelations about the Pegasus spy trojan from the Israeli company NSO Group. The Bonn authority sent a cyber security warning on Tuesday and classified Pegasus as a level two (out of four) IT threat. In this yellow warning level, companies, authorities and users should pay more attention to abnormalities on their devices.
"The threat potential is to be rated as high, especially since current versions of iOS and Android are still considered vulnerable," writes the BSI in its assessment available to SPIEGEL. It should be noted, however, that these are dedicated attacks on individual targets and not a campaign aimed at mass distribution, writes the authority with reference to the media reports.
According to the BSI, it is particularly problematic that attacks by Pegasus can hardly be warded off. "Due to the professionalism of the attackers, the targeted implementation of preventive protective measures is very difficult." In the cyber security warning CSW no. 2021-234348-10C2, which is aimed in particular at companies and authorities, the BSI proposes that the use of services for opening SMS as well as iMessage and FaceTime on Apple devices can be restricted. However, against other attack routes such as the so-called IMSI catchers, "hardly any practical protection is possible."
So far, the Pegasus revelations have led to political debates and reactions from authorities, especially abroad. In France, for example, the National Security and Defense Council held a special meeting after it became known that President Emmanuel Macron, among others, was on an alleged list of potential NSO software spy targets. Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz is also said to plan to visit with his French counterpart to raise the issue.
The NSO Group claims that Pegasus is only used to fight criminals and terrorists.
The buyers of their products are responsible for compliance with these requirements, and that is exclusively the authorities.
When NSO checks a customer, they have to hand over "forgery-proof" log entries and lose access to Pegasus if these entries prove misuse.
In Germany there have been debates in the past about the company FinFisher, whose software appeared in repressive countries such as Bahrain, but which also developed a state Trojan for the Federal Criminal Police Office.
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