India: A joint investigation by Amnesty International and The Washington Post found that the Indian government has been using Pegasus spyware to target prominent journalists.
Pegasus software, developed by the Israeli company NSO Group and distributed to governments worldwide, allows users to read and write on a phone, browse through images, record calls, track locations, and even record the owner using the camera.
According to Amnesty International, the most recent case of spyware on the iPhones of journalists Mr. Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire and Mr. Anand Mangnale of The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project was discovered in October.
“Our latest findings show that increasingly, journalists in India face the threat of unlawful surveillance simply for doing their jobs, alongside other tools of repression including imprisonment under draconian laws, smear campaigns, harassment, and intimidation,” stated Mr. Donncha O Cearbhaill, Head of Amnesty International’s Security Lab.
“Despite repeated revelations, there has been a shameful lack of accountability about the use of Pegasus spyware in India which only intensifies the sense of impunity over these human rights violations,” Mr. Cearbhaill added.
The Indian government did not answer right away, but in 2021 it refuted similar claims that it had surveilled journalists, activists, and political opponents using Pegasus spyware.
Last month, Indian media reported that the nation’s cyber security unit was looking into claims made by opposition politicians that they were subjected to attempted phone tapping. These politicians had received alerts from Apple about “state-sponsored attackers” on their iPhones.
The Minister of Information and Technology, Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw, stated that the government was “concerned” about the complaints in that instance.
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