Today, the Indian Express broke a story about how spyware developed by an Israeli cyber-intelligence firm, NSO Group was used on dalit activists, journalists and lawyers in India. The spyware, “Pegasus” would be installed through a missed call on Whatsapp after which an attacker would gain complete access to a smartphone. As per the NSO Group, “Pegasus” was only sold to government clients. Subsequent reports by Huffington Post and News Laundry have revealed that the targets include lawyers in the Bhima Koregaon case, Bela Bhatia and Anand Teltumbde. This raises some extremely disturbing questions about likely illegal hacking by unknown government agencies- or other actors operating in India- and suggests flagrant disregard for the rule of law and contempt for our fundamental right to privacy.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://internetfreedom.in/statement-scary-disclosures-on-use-of-nso-spyware-in-india-signal-a-need-for-urgent-remedy/