The spyware from the Israeli company NSO utilises‘zero click exploits’ to access target phones; that is, it enters the phones without the targets having to take any action
The Pegasus saga has expanded with the revelation that former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, election strategist Prashant Kishore, and TMC leaders were possibly tracked using the spyware. Reports filed by an international group of media publications, including The Wire from India, show that the spyware was also possibly used against two sitting Union Ministers, Ashwini Vaishnav and Prahlad Patel.
These revelations come a day after reports that 40 Indian journalists, including SiddharthVaradarajan of The Wire and Vijaitha Singh of The Hindu, were tracked using Pegasus. The reports by the international group of publications are based on a database of possible Pegasus-target phone numbers that was accessed by Paris-based Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International. Amnesty’s digital forensics lab has been able to establish the presence of Pegasus on some of these phones.
The spyware from the Israeli company NSO utilises ‘zero click exploits’ to access target phones; that is, it enters the phones without the targets having to take any action. An earlier version is known to have exploited WhatsApp calls to enter phones and send back any messages or files to its control centre; they could even turn the phones into spying devices by turning on the cameras and microphones.
Pegasus is graded a cyberweapon and NSO states that its customers can only be governments and not private entities. The Indian government has not acknowledged the purchase of Pegasus, and the government’s official response has been that India has robust protocols in place for surveillance. However, the list of targets in India has many anti-government and anti-BJP figures, pointing to the possibility that the powerful cyberweapon was purchased by the government and used against its political enemies rather than any legally sanctioned surveillance. This is what makes the story important.(The Hindu)
