By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: In its first response to the Pegasus snoopgate controversy, the Ministry of Defence on Monday said it did not have any transaction with Israel-based NSO Group, which owns the spyware. The clarification came from Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt in response to a question by CPI’s Rajya Sabha member V Sivadasan. “Ministry of Defence has not had transaction with NSO Group technologies,” he said in a brief written statement.
Sivadasan had bundled the question along with others on expenditure incurred by the defence ministry. When the controversy first broke, Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had in Parliament dismissed media reports on the use of the software to snoop on Indians, saying the allegations were aimed at maligning Indian democracy.
With the defence ministry washing its hands of the military grade cyber weapon, the question is who procured it, since over 1,000 Indian mobile numbers were on the list of possible targets. Also, a few of the instruments were found infected by Pegasus. NSO is emphatic that it supplies its spyware only to verified and vetted governments to help them strengthen internal and external security.
