Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (MS)
New Delhi, Oct 31: WhatsApp social media application, which is owned by Facebook, in a shocking revelation has confirmed that human right activists and journalists in India are monitored remotely by operators using Israeli spyware Pegasus.
A lawsuit in this connection is filed on Tuesday, October 29, by WhatsApp administration accusing the Israeli NSO Group of violating the privacy of around 1,400 WhatsApp users through the spyware Pegasus.
WhatsApp says that it has conveyed the information to each one of the users who were under surveillance secretly. However, the firm declined to give the exact number or the identities of the affected users.
WhatsApp had alerted at least 24 Dalit activists, lawyers, academics and journalists in India that their phones are under surveillance for a two-week period in May 2019.
In this method a specially designed 'exploit link' needs to be clicked on by the target person. The Pegasus operator convinces the person in question to do so through enticement. Once done it will penetrate the security features of the phone and will have access to all the passwords, contacts etc. The phone sends back all the data of the said person. The spyware operator can event turn on the phone's camera and microphone to record all the activities of the person and all those around the phone.
In the latest version of the said spyware, even clicking of the exploit link is not required. A mere video call on WhatsApp is sufficient to make inroads into ones privacy.
In its lawsuit filed by Whatsapp, the company has accused the spyware agency of violating the laws of USA and California. The company has claimed that the phones were hacked through missed calls alone.
Responding to the allegation of WhatsApp, the NSO Group, accused of using spyware Pegasus for ulterior motives said, "We deny in strongest terms the allegations made on us by WhatsApp. Our technology is not designed to use against individuals."
The NSO group further said that it sells its product only to government agencies. The scribes were unable to contact the home secretary A K Bhalla and A P Sawhney, secretary for electronics and information technology as their efforts to get in touch with them went unanswered.
Citizen Lab, cyber security group based in Canada, in a statement in September 2018 had said that it has found suspected infections of NSO Pegasus with 33 of the 36 Pegasus operators in 45 countries including India. It also confirmed that five operators of Pegasus are dedicated to keep an eye on Asia. One operator, Ganges, used a politically-themed domain.