Israeli Spyware Used to Snoop on Indian Journalists & Activists, Admits WhatsApp

Guwahati, October 31, 2019:

Social media giant ‘Facebook’-owned platform WhatsApp revealed that journalists and human rights activists in India have been targets of surveillance by operators using Israeli spyware Pegasus.

The revelation came up following a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in a US federal court in San Francisco. In the lawsuit, WhatsApp alleged that the Israeli NSO Group targeted some 1,400 WhatsApp users with Pegasus.

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However, WhatsApp has denied to reveal the identities and “exact number” of those targeted for surveillance in India, reported The Indian Express.

“Indian journalists and human rights activists have been the target of surveillance and while I cannot reveal their identities and the exact number, I can say that it is not an insignificant number,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said- reported The Indian Express.

Reportedly, at least two dozen academics, lawyers, Dalit activists and journalists in India were contacted and alerted by WhatsApp that their phones had been under state-of-the-art surveillance for a two-week period until May 2019.

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In the lawsuit against the NSO Group and Q Cyber Technologies, WhatsApp alleged that the companies violated US and California laws as well as WhatsApp’s terms of service. The WhatsApp’s terms prohibit this type of abuse. It claimed that smartphones were penetrated through missed calls alone.

The NSO Group, in a statement, said: “In the strongest possible terms, we dispute today’s allegations and will vigorously fight them. Our technology is not designed or licensed for use against human rights activists and journalists.” After doubts about this technology were first raised in May, the NSO Group said it put in place a ‘Human Rights Policy’ on September 19 which “further embeds human rights protections throughout our business and governance systems”.

The NSO Group claims Pegasus has been sold only to government agencies. “We license our product only to vetted and legitimate government agencies,” it said.

Emails, phone calls and text messages to Home Secretary A K Bhalla and Electronics and Information Technology Secretary A P Sawhney for comments went unanswered.

In September 2018, Canada-based cyber security group Citizen Lab said: “We found suspected NSO Pegasus infections associated with 33 of the 36 Pegasus operators we identified in 45 countries” including India.

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