India and several governments use Israeli spyware to breach WhatsApp

WhatsApp, a communications service owned by Facebook, protested the NSO Group in a California District Court in the United States on Tuesday. WhatsApp accuses the Israeli technology company (acquired by Novapina Capital) of selling spyware that infects the target users' phones and devices and sends information to third parties.

In the comments about Washington PostNeil Cathcart, CEO of WhatsApp said, “The attack is very sophisticated, but attempts to completely block their footsteps have not been completely successful.

The NSO group is famous for its surveillance camera Pegasus, which says it has the ability to turn on the phone's camera and microphone, check emails and messages, and collect location data.

Pegasus works by dialing the target user's phone via WhatsApp. Target users don't even need to answer the phone to install spyware on their phones.

The NSO Group recognizes itself as creating “technology that helps government agencies prevent and investigate terrorism and crime to save thousands of lives worldwide.”

But according to WhatsApp, the software "was misused for at least 100 human rights defenders, journalists and other civil society members around the world."

in Washington Post "A tool that enables surveillance of personal life is being abused," Cathcart warned, "and this technology spreads into the hands of irresponsible companies and governments, putting us all at risk."

Report New York Times The lawsuit totaled more than 1,400 people in 20 countries.

Despite the NSO group's denial that spyware is used to target civilians, the Canadian Citizens Institute believes it is not. Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based on the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. This article has supported WhatsApp's research on the app hack found in May 2019, and specifically helps to identify “cases where the targets of this attack are members of civil society, such as human rights defenders and journalists”. Has been.

According to a report from Citizen Lab, “NSO Group spyware is sold to government customers without proper control over how these clients are used. They can use NSO's technology to hack into the devices of civil society members, including journalists, lawyers, political opposition parties, and human rights defenders, with fatal consequences. ”

The situation in India and around the world

Article posted on Indian Express Memo: "At least 24 academics, lawyers, Dalit activists and journalists in India contacted and warned at WhatsApp that their phone was under state-of-the-art surveillance for two weeks until May 2019."

According to Indian Express The article, WhatsApp, did not reveal exact information or identity about the number of people being watched through Pegasus, but a spokesman said in the newspaper: “I can't reveal the identity and the exact number, but that number doesn't matter. ”

But activists who violated the WhatsApp number have begun to provoke a country call in the future.

that much Indian Express AK Bhalla Secretary General and A P Sawhney, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, tried to hear the opinions, but their efforts were unanswered.

In September 2018, Citizen Lab named India one of 45 countries aimed at Pegasus spyware.

“We suspect NSO Pegasus infections involving 33 of 36 Pegasus operators in 45 countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Ivory Coast, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Iraq, Israel, and Jordan. . Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Yemen and Zambia. The findings are based on DNS server locations at the country level, which can lead to inaccuracies due to factors such as VPN and satellite Internet teleport location, ”said Citizen Lab.

The Citizen Lab pinpointed more than six countries that have used Pegasus to "target civil society", including Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Institute is concerned that this raises human rights risks to the relevant targets.

The Citizen Lab provided another case study in October 2018 to escape to Canada to identify Saudi citizens who are now students. Activist Omar Abdulaziz is a spokesman who has been threatened by his family by Saudi states. The team analyzed data movement patterns on the Internet and found that Abdulaziz's phone was infected and "targeted while Abdulaziz, an exile in Canada, attended a university in Quebec."

Source: TRTWorld and Agencies