India used Pegasus spyware to target high-profile journalists: Amnesty

A recent joint investigation by Amnesty International and a US publication, The Washington Postrevealed that the Indian government is using the notorious Pegasus spyware to target prominent journalists.

Developed by the Israeli company NSO Group and sold to governments around the world, this spy software allows access to a phone’s messages, emails, photos, call recordings, location data, and even its camera.

According to National Heraldan Indian newspaper, the spyware used both IP addresses and domain names to reach its targets.

Since an adversary leaked the Pegasus user manual in 2016, enough cybersecurity research has been published to allow forensic analyses.

As domain names are usually sold for at least a year, Israeli spyware typically uses several months of tracking targets.

According AFPciting the investigation’s findings, it revealed that journalists Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire and Anand Mangnale of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project were among those targeted with spyware on their iPhones, with the last known case occurring in October.

“Our latest findings show that increasingly, journalists in India face the threat of illegal surveillance simply for doing their jobs, alongside other tools of repression such as imprisonment under draconian laws, smear campaigns, harassment and intimidation,” said Donncha O Cearbhaill, head of Amnesty International’s Security Lab.

Although India’s government did not immediately respond, it denied similar accusations in 2021 that it used Pegasus spyware to monitor political opponents, activists and journalists.

Last month, Indian media reported that the country’s cyber security unit was investigating allegations from opposition politicians of attempted phone tapping after they reported receiving warnings on Apple’s iPhone about “state-sponsored attackers”.

In this case, Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister for information and technology, said the government was “concerned” by the allegations.