Israeli software ‘snooping’ on 40 scribes, government denies

New Delhi, July 18

The government has denied reports that an Israeli hacking software meant to target terrorists and criminals has been misused in 20 countries, including India, to target at least 40 journalists, besides civil society activists and lawyers.

A simultaneous “expose” worldwide by 16 news organisations, including The Wire from India, has built on the case filed by WhatsApp in a US court against the Israeli NSO Group for the use of its Pegasus hacking software to target over 1,400 mobile phones in 20 countries. The government said there was no concrete basis for such allegations and claimed that WhatsApp had denied the claim it made before the US court.

The media outlets claimed to have independently identified the owners of over 1,571 mobile numbers in 10 countries. The forensic testing of some of the phones confirmed the use of Pegasus spyware, including in some Indian numbers.

Some of the Indian phones were found to have been targeted, but not infected while the tests were inconclusive on some of the phones.

The list includes the number of a murdered freelance journalist in Mexico whose mobile was never found, thus not established whether the software had been infected.

The “revelation” comes a day ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament and international publications in the UK, EU and the US began publishing the details on Sunday night itself. The government has already said in Parliament that “no unofficial spyware has been bought or used in India”. Asked whether there was a breach in established procedure, then IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said, “as far as I know no unofficial notice has been given”. The NSO says the Israeli Defence Ministry vets export applications for the software which is sold only to “trusted” governments. It has declined to give its list of customers. — TNS