Over 40 Indian journalists were under scanner of Israeli – ‘Pegasus Spyware’

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 “It's important to recognize that you can't have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience.” - Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States. 

Pegasus, the military-grade spyware developed by the Israeli cyber arms firm NSO Group, is believed to be used by an unidentified agency to potentially target 40 Indian journalists, as a report The Wire says. However, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), by claiming it “bereft of facts but also founded in pre-conceived conclusions.” 

Introducing Govt response - “However, questionnaire sent to GoI indicates that story being crafted is one that is not only bereft of facts but also founded in pre-conceived conclusions. It seems you are trying to play the role of an investigator, prosecutor as well as jury” https://t.co/fUNL6lE8rI pic.twitter.com/la2zL3DlJn

— Alok Bhatt (@alok_bhatt) July 18, 2021

The Pegasus spyware hack has not been restricted to India but has happened worldwide. According to Washington Post, a snoop list was found, consisting of more than 1,000 people from over 50 nations, including cabinet ministers, diplomats, heads of state, prime ministers, military, and security officers.  

Journalists from several media outlets like the Associated Press, CNN, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Voice of America, Bloomberg News, the Financial Times in London, Le Monde in France, and Al Jazeera in Qatar. In India, the list includes Hindustan Times, The Hindu, India Today, Indian Express and Network18. 

Rahul Gandhi, Prashant Kishor, 2 Union Ministers Among Pegasus 'Targets'

Read more: https://t.co/E9JngTy1Qa pic.twitter.com/CootIJJw1K

— NDTV (@ndtv) July 19, 2021

Apart from the Journalists, Indian Politicians have also been made the potential targets of the spyware attack. The list included the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, Indian political strategist, Prashant Kishor; and former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa. 

Pegasus Spyware: The real threat to privacy 

The Pegasus spyware was provided to the Governments with the sole purpose of tracking unlawful and violent activities. Even though the spyware was developed to trace the extremists and criminals, it was used for hacking journalists and government officials. Around 37 smartphones of journalists, human rights activists, business officials, and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, were attempted or were successful in hacking, as per the ‘Pegasus Project’ investigation conducted by The Washington Post, The Wire and other 15 media agencies. 

Back in November 2019, in an interview with The Quint, former home secretary GK Pillai stated, about his awareness of the Pegasus spyware being operated in Indian and sold to Indian private firms. He also mentioned the spyware been brought by the Indian Government from private foreign tech firms like NSO. Pillai further added, “It is quite common.” 

"The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever," the govt said in its response to the media houses investigating the matter.https://t.co/eurmguE5qa

— The Quint (@TheQuint) July 18, 2021

Pegasus spyware hides inside the Android and iOS devices and feeds information to the hacker. It gets access to the phone’s camera, microphone, file, photos, emails and even encrypted messages. The only option to get rid of this spyware is to discard the device, and there is no other way. It enters the devices through zero-click attacks without human interaction, which are hard to detect. 

Hacking the phones of government officials and journalists can be a threat to privacy. Many journalists assigned for reporting Defence, Home Ministry, Election Commission and Kashmir related events in India, were found in the snoop list as the potential victims of the hacks. This Pegasus spyware attack has been continuing since 2019, when 121 Indians, including several lawyers and activists, were spied with Pegasus spyware, as per The Quint reports. 

The Government has denied any allegations of illegal snooping on its part, and claiming them “'an attempt to malign the government.” 

Meanwhile, the IT Ministry officials stated, “The government operates strictly as per provisions of law and laid down protocols. There are adequate safeguards to ensure that no innocent citizen is harassed or his privacy breached.” 

Author: 

Pratiti Dhang