Who Pays For Pegasus? Citizens, Not Just Governments |
After the publication of the mega scandal of Israeli company NSO’s spyware, Pegasus, various media houses, through credible sources, estimated the cost of using Pegasus by NSO’s clients worldwide against their opponents.
NSO Group, an Israeli company specialising in cyber-surveillance, developed Pegasus, a spyware capable of infecting smartphones and accessing their data, including messages, photos, contacts, and location. Pegasus can also activate the microphone and camera of the phone, effectively turning it into a spying tool. But how much does it cost to use Pegasus? And which countries can afford it?
This section will attempt to answer these questions based on the available information, primarily from the US newspaper The Washington Post, the British newspaper The Guardian, and the French newspaper Le Monde.
Firstly, the cost of using Pegasus depends on several factors, such as the number of phones targeted, the duration of surveillance, and the type of contract signed with NSO Group.
According to The Guardian’s estimate, which relies on internal documents from NSO Group dating back to 2016, a licence to monitor 50 smartphones cost 20.7 million euros per year at that time. Similarly, a licence for monitoring 100 smartphones cost 41.4 million euros per year. It remains uncertain whether these prices have changed since 2016 or whether NSO Group has offered discounts or rebates to certain clients.
Pegasus represents a significant expense for its users, which could have been allocated to other purposes or needs
Pegasus represents a significant expense for its users, which could have been allocated to other purposes or needs
Subsequently, the estimated cost of Pegasus by country derives from the number of phones targeted and the duration of the operation, using the average cost provided by The Guardian. These data are approximations and may vary depending on the sources. For instance, Saudi Arabia targeted approximately 15,000 people with Pegasus, according to Le Monde, but The Washington Post suggests a figure of 10,000. Likewise, Le Monde indicates that Morocco commenced using Pegasus in 2017, whereas Citizen Lab asserts it was in 2016.
The total estimated cost of Pegasus for ten countries is about 10.5 billion euros over a period of two to six years.
In addition to these estimates, one can also compare the cost of Pegasus with other indicators or expenditures, such as the average income or the budget of a country, which can help to provide insight into the scale and impact of Pegasus.
For instance, according to Statista, Spain’s average annual income per capita in 2020 was $30,722. El País reported the budget of the Spanish Intelligence Agency (CNI) to be $331 million in 2020, while El Mundo stated that Catalonia’s budget was $40 billion in the same year. On the other hand, according to credible newspapers Le Monde and TEHTRIS, the estimated cost of Pegasus is US$7 million to US$20 million per year for 50 to 100 smartphones, US$650,000 for a single target, and US$9 million for 10 targets.
This demonstrates that Pegasus costs are very high compared to other indicators or expenditures. For instance, according to another media report's estimate in the preceding section, Spain would have spent about 248.4 million euros over six years to monitor 60 phones using Pegasus. This amount is approximately eight times the Spanish Intelligence Agency (CNI) 's 2020 budget, or about 6% of Catalonia’s budget in the same year. Furthermore, this sum is equivalent to about 8,000 times the average annual income per capita in Spain in 2020.
This comparison highlights that Pegasus represents a significant expense for its users, which could have been allocated to other purposes or needs. Moreover, it emphasises the disproportionate nature of Pegasus costs in relation to its victims.
Assessing the cost of Pegasus with certainty is challenging because it depends on several factors, such as the number of phones targeted, the duration of surveillance, and the type of contract NSO Group signed. To obtain a clearer and more comprehensive view of the cost and scope of Pegasus use, access to NSO Group’s and its clients’ internal data would be necessary.