Pegasus spyware revelation indicates Indian state snooping on journalists, activists and politicians · Global Voices
A watchtower in the US area of the special ammunition depot in the Dernekamp hamlet, Kirchspiel, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (<PERSON>, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Pegasus Project, a collaboration of 17 media organisations, released a report on July 18 detailing the potential hacking and illegal surveillance of 50,000 phone numbers, mostly in countries with authoritarian regimes, through the use of the Israeli-made spyware Pegasus. The targets of this alleged espionage include human rights defenders, activists, journalists, politicians, high-ranking public officials and business people. Reportedly, more than 1,000 phone numbers from India are a part of this list.
Pegasus users can access unencrypted content stored on a phone (messages, emails, photos, videos, etc.), record phone calls, track geo-locations and activate microphones and cameras without the user's authorization.
The leaked list of Pegasus targets includes two phone numbers of <PERSON>, a member of the Indian Parliament and the former President of the Indian National Congress (INC), who was unsuccessful in his election campaign against the incumbent Indian Prime Minister <PERSON> in 2019. The Guardian noted that the selection of Indian phone numbers coincided with <PERSON>'s 2017 visit to Israel that led to significant growth in the relationship between India and Israel. INC, the main opposition party in the Indian parliament, has accused <PERSON> of ‘treason’ and compromising the country's national security.
Also included on this list is the phone number of former bureaucrat <PERSON>, who was an election commissioner in 2019. As commissioner, he argued for imposing sanctions on <PERSON> for his heated political speeches, which were linked to increased attacks on Indian Muslims.
<PERSON>, India's Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology and <PERSON>, the Minister of State for Jal Shakti (the water ministry), are two recently sworn-in ministers whose numbers have also been found on the list. Incidentally, <PERSON>'s ministry oversees India's digital surveillance regulations.
What is Pegasus?
Pegasus is a type of spyware — a software that allows users to secretly gather and receive data in someone's phone, computer or electronic device — made by Israeli tech firm NSO Group.
The Pegasus Project includes 80 journalists from 17 media organizations from 10 countries, with Paris-based media not-for-profit Forbidden Stories coordinating and the human rights not-for-profit Amnesty International overseeing forensic tests. 534
<PERSON> and <PERSON>, the two founding editors of the Wire, an independent Indian media organisation that is assisting in the investigations, both had devices infected with Pegasus. One other editor from the Wire and three regular contributors also had their phone numbers on the list.
Amnesty's Security Lab produced a detailed technical report after analyzing the leaked list. So far they have analysed 67 phones and found traces of Pegasus in 37 of them. Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab based at the University of Toronto, Canada has independently reviewed and approved Amnesty's forensic examination methods.
BREAKING: massive, global leak of the targets of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. *huge deal.*
Forensic investigation by @AmnestyTech
in collaboration with @FbdnStories reporters.
We @citizenlab conducted peer review.
Here's an explainer THREAD.https://t.co/TasFCy5EGW pic.twitter.com/rGGKAkfSry
— <PERSON> (@jsrailton) July 18, 2021
While having a phone number on this list does not necessarily confirm that the phone has been infected with Pegasus, the users of these phones can theoretically be targetted by one of the NSO Group's clients. The Amnesty Security Lab has also published the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT), an open-source mobile forensic tool to simplify the process of gathering and analysing data from potentially compromised Android and iOS devices.
The aftermath in India
Reporters Without Border calls India ‘one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their job properly’, while placing the country's Press Freedom Index at 140 out of 180 ranked countries. Journalists like <PERSON> cited conscious efforts to not report about the Pegasus Project in mainstream Indian media outlets.
Lesson for journalists: A controlled way to kill a story in the headline and by prioritizing down information in the main text. pic.twitter.com/YvXgEZuA19
— <PERSON> (@nit_set) July 20, 2021
The range of potential Pegasus victims is huge. 534