News Analysis India

Tag: NSO Group

  • ‘Supari Media’: Union minister Gen VK Singh slams The New York Times over Pegasus deal report

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Union minister Gen VK Singh on Saturday called The New York Times “Supari Media” over its report which claimed that the Indian government bought the Pegasus spy tool in 2017 as part of a deal with Israel.

    The Israeli spyware Pegasus and a missile system were the “centrepieces” of a roughly USD 2 billion deal of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear between India and Israel in 2017, according to the report in The New York Times.

    ALSO READ| Opposition slams Modi government over New York Times report on Pegasus deal

    A massive controversy erupted last year when the NSO Group hit the headlines with the alleged use of its Pegasus software by some governments to spy on journalists, human rights defenders, politicians and others in a number of countries, including India, triggered concerns over issues relating to privacy.

    Reacting to NYT’s report, Singh, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Civil Aviation, said on Twitter: “Can you trust NYT?? They are known “Supari Media”. Singh is also a former Indian Army chief.

  • Activist Rona Wilson’s phone infected with Pegasus spyware, says new forensic analysis

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Activist Rona Wilson’s smartphone was infiltrated using NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware a year before his arrest in the Elgar Parishad case, according to new forensic analysis.

    Wilson, a prisoners’ rights activist and academic, was a victim of “surveillance and incriminating document delivery” for close to a year before his arrest in June 2018, according to the analysis.

    Digital forensics firm Arsenal Consulting said Wilson’s Apple phone was not just selected for surveillance by a client of Israel’s NSO Group but was also successfully compromised on many occasions.

    The analysis showed that two backups of the iPhone 6s belonging to Wilson had digital traces showing infection by the Pegasus surveillance tool, which its developer, the Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group, has said has been licensed only to government agencies.

    The Indian government has neither confirmed nor denied that it is an NSO Group client.

    V Suresh, National General Secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said the new findings show compelling evidence in the case.

    “Now there is compelling evidence. We are exploring all legal possibilities to validate these findings based on the new type of electronic evidence,” Suresh told PTI.

  • Pegasus spyware issue India’s internal matter: Israeli envoy

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Israel does not allow companies like NSO to sell their products to non-governmental actors, newly-appointed Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon said on Thursday while describing the row over the alleged use of the firm’s spyware Pegasus in India as an internal matter of the country.

    His comments at a press conference came a day after the Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee to investigate the alleged use of Pegasus software to snoop on Indian citizens including journalists, activists and politicians.

    “I will not go into more details. NSA (Group) is a private Israeli company. Every export of NSO or such companies needs an export licence of the Israeli government. We grant this export licence only for exporting to governments,” he said.

    “This is the only main requirement. Under the requirements, they cannot sell it to non-governmental actors. What’s happening here in India is an internal thing for India and I would rather not go into your internal matters,” Gilon said.

    He was replying to questions over allegations of unauthorised surveillance using NSO Group’s spyware Pegasus and whether the Indian government contacted Israel over the issue.

    An international investigative consortium had claimed that many Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were potentially targeted by the NSO Group’s phone hacking software.

    The Supreme Court has set up a three-member independent expert panel to probe the alleged use of Pegasus for targeted surveillance in India, observing the state cannot get a “free pass” every time the spectre of national security is raised.

    Asked about the new quadrilateral grouping comprising India, Israel, the US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the envoy said it is focused on cooperation in areas of the economy, trade, infrastructure and technology among others and that there is “no military element” to it.

    When referred to India’s close ties with Iran and whether it will impact the cooperation under the grouping, he said it is to promote something positive and not to create something negative against anyone.

    “Our cooperation is to promote something positive, it is not to create something negative against someone else,” he said.

    “We are very much aware that India has its own interests when it comes to Afghanistan and Iran. I think that in discussions between countries, especially between friends, each country puts forward its own concerns and each country has its own interests, and then you see over time how it circles down, how it comes out,” the envoy said.

    At the same time, he said the biggest threat Israel has been facing is from Iran, alleging that the country has been a source of instability in the Gulf region.

    Gilon said Israel is keen to expand its cooperation with India in areas of economy and trade and said the proposed free trade agreement between the two sides is expected to increase the volume of economic engagement.

    He said the FTA is expected to be finalised by June next year.

    The envoy also said Israel is cooperating with Indian agencies probing the bombing outside the Israeli embassy in the national capital earlier this year.

    “We don’t know yet the identity of the perpetrators. It is an ongoing investigation. I hope we will get to them as soon as possible,” he said.

    The envoy said Israel’s cooperation with India in areas of agriculture, water and irrigation sharing is on an upswing.

    External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar paid a visit to Israel this month during which he held talks with Israel’s top leadership to further expand the strategic ties between the two countries.

  • Only PM can answer on behalf of all ministries, why is he silent: P Chidambaram on Pegasus row 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: A day after the defence ministry stated that it did not have any transaction with the NSO Group, which is at the centre of the Pegasus row, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday said only Prime Minister Narendra Modi can answer on behalf of all ministries and departments over the issue and asked “why is he silent”.

    NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance software company, has been under increasing attack following allegations that its Pegasus software was used for surveillance of phones of people in several countries, including India.

    Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt, while replying to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday, said, “Ministry of Defence has not had any transaction with NSO Group Technologies.”

    Reacting to the development, Chidambaram tweeted, “MoD has ‘absolved’ itself of any deal with the NSO Group, Israel. Assuming, MoD is correct, that takes out one Ministry/Department. What about the remaining half a dozen usual suspects?” “Only the PM can answer on behalf of ALL ministries/departments. Why is he silent?” the former home minister said.

    An international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers, including that of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, union ministers Prahlad Singh Patel and Ashwini Vaishnaw, businessman Anil Ambani, and at least 40 journalists, were on the list of potential targets for surveillance using Israeli firm NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware.

    The government has been denying all Opposition allegations in the matter.

  • No transaction with NSO Group: Defence Ministry on the firm at the centre of Pegasus snooping row

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The defence ministry on Monday said it did not have any transaction with the NSO Group, the developer of military-grade spy software Pegasus that is in the eye of a huge political firestorm following the snooping controversy allegedly involving the programme.

    The brief written statement on the NSO Group came from Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt in response to a question in Rajya Sabha by CPI(M) member V Sivadasan.

    “Ministry of Defence has not had any transaction with NSO Group Technologies,” the minister said.

    Sivadasan, as part of a number of questions on expenditure by the defence ministry, also asked whether the government had carried out any transaction with the NSO Group Technologies.

    NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance software company, has been under increasing attack following allegations that its Pegasus phone spyware was used for surveillance on journalists, activists and political leaders in several countries including India.

    NSO has denied any wrongdoing.

    The opposition parties have been targeting the central government over the snooping row and disrupting proceedings in Parliament since it met on July 19 for the Monsoon session.

    The opposition parties have been demanding a discussion on the Pegasus issue in parliament, claiming it has national security implications.

    IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had dismissed media reports on the use of Pegasus software to snoop on Indians, saying the allegations levelled just ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament were aimed at maligning Indian democracy.

    In a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha, Vaishnaw had said that with several checks and balances being in place, “any sort of illegal surveillance” by unauthorised persons is not possible in India.

    The controversy erupted after an investigation by a global media consortium based on leaked targeting data claimed evidence that the military-grade malware from the NSO Group was being used to spy on politicians, journalists, human rights activists and others.

    In his reply, Bhatt also said that an allocation of Rs 4,04,364 crore was made to the defence ministry in the budget estimate (BE) stage in 2018-19 and the expenditure made during that fiscal by the ministry was Rs 4,03,459 crore.

    The minister said that an outlay of Rs 4,31,010 crore was made at the BE stage in 2019-20 while expenditure against the allocation was Rs 4,51,902 crore.

    In 2020-21, the defence ministry incurred an expenditure of Rs 4,85,726 crore as against an allocation of Rs 4,71,378 crore at the BE stage, he said.

    The percentage of allocation to the defence ministry out of the total budget of the central government for 2018-19 was 16.56 percent while it was 15.47 percent in 2019-20 and 15.49 percent in 2020-21, according to the minister.

    Bhatt said an amount of Rs 45,705 crore was spent in 2018-19 on procurement from foreign sources while the figure for 2019-20 was 47,961.47 crore.

    The ministry spent Rs 53,118 crore in procurement from foreign countries in 2020-21.

  • Delhi-based Kashmiri scribes, over 25 people from Valley were potential spying targets: Report

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Some Delhi-based Kashmiri journalists and over 25 people from the Kashmir Valley were selected as potential targets for surveillance between 2017 and mid-2019 by an yet unidentified government agency that is also believed to be a client of the Israeli company NSO Group, The Wire reported on Friday.

    The leaked list that has been analysed by media partners of the Pegasus Project consortium reporting on the issue includes the numbers of key separatist leaders, politicians, human rights activists, journalists and business persons from Kashmir, the report said.

    The Wire said it was able to conduct forensic analysis on the phones of two – separatist leader Bilal Lone and the late S.A.R. Geelani, who worked as a lecturer in Delhi University and died in 2018.

    Lone’s phone data was examined by Amnesty International’s Security Lab and even though this phone set was not the same as the one he used at the time his phone was potentially targeted as per the leaked database, forensic analysis revealed signs of Pegasus targeting, the report said.

    The signs appear in 2019, and are likely the outcome of a process initiated by an India-based client of the NSO Group, it said.

    Geelani’s phone showed clear signs of Pegasus spyware activity between February 2018 and January 2019, the Wire said, citing forensic analysis.

    Israeli group NSO insists the leaked database accessed by French non-profit media organisation Forbidden Stories has nothing to do with it or its software Pegasus which is being used by “vetted governments”.

    The Wire said that others on the leaked database include at least two members of People’s Democratic party (PDP) chief and former chief minister of J&K Mehbooba Mufti’s family.

    Their selection as potential targets of surveillance happened when Mufti was still chief minister of the erstwhile state and in a coalition with the BJP, the Wire said.

    Mufti’s family members were chosen for potential surveillance just months before the government collapsed as the BJP pulled out of the coalition in June 2018, it said.

    J&K Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari’s brother Tariq Bukhari is also in the list which also has at least four members of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s family, the Wire said.

    The leak also shows that the current head of the Hurriyat conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was a potential target of surveillance between 2017 and 2019, according to the report.

    Meanwhile, more than 200 concerned citizens endorsed the demand to end what they called “repressive surveillance” and ties with “apartheid Israel”.

    “While we ask the Indian government to come clean on the findings of this investigation, we must work towards a broader global alliance that challenges such surveillance and the collusion of governments to gain access to technology built to violate human rights, like in the case of Israel,” said the statement which has been signed by cultural community members such as Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Nayantara Sahgal, Mallika Sarabhai, TM Krishna and Anand Patwardhan, among others.

    Academic community members such as Nivedita Menon, Kumkum Roy, Gyan Prakash and Apoorvanand as well as activists Henri Tiphagne, Harsh Mander and Fr.Frazer Mascarenhas were also among signatories to the statement brought out under the aegis of the India Cultural Forum.

    The France-based journalism non-profit, Forbidden Stories, and international human rights advocacy group Amnesty International accessed a massive list of 50,000 numbers which are believed to have been selected as potential targets of surveillance by 10 countries.

    The records were then shared with a group of 16 media houses across the world –including The Wire – who worked collaboratively to investigate the scope of this intended or actual surveillance over several months in an initiative termed as the Pegasus Project.

    On Sunday, an international media consortium reported that over 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including of two ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge besides scores of businesspersons and activists in India could have been targeted for hacking through the spyware.

    The government has been denying all Opposition allegations in the matter.

  • Two mobiles of Rahul Gandhi selected as potential targets for Pegasus: Report

    By Online Desk
    Two mobile phones used by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were selected as potential surveillance targets by an official Indian client of the Israeli surveillance technology vendor NSO Group, according to a report published in the Guardian.

    Also, phones belonging to at least five of Rahul Gandhi’s aides and other party leaders were identified as potential targets of the spyware, report has stated.

    Election manager Prashant Kishor’s was another notable name in the list of 300 verified Indian numbers, according to the British daily.

    A forensic analysis by Amnesty’s Security Lab on June 14 was said to have found that the phone of Kishor, a political strategist most recently involved in Mamata Banerjee’s victorious Bengal campaign, was indeed hacked using Pegasus.

    The examination found that Kishor’s phone calls, emails and messages were being monitored throughout the final weeks of the Bengal elections in April.

    Kishor said the findings were “really disappointing”. “Those who did [the hacking] were looking to take undue advantage of their position of power with the help of illegal snooping,” The Guardian quoted Kishor as saying.

    The two numbers of Rahul Gandhi, which he has since given up, appear to have been selected for targeting from mid-2018 to mid-2019 when the Lok Sabha elections were held.

    “Targeted surveillance of the type you describe whether in regard to me, other leaders of the opposition or indeed any law-abiding citizen of India is illegal and deplorable,” Rahul was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “If your information is correct, the scale and nature of surveillance you describe go beyond an attack on the privacy of individuals. It is an attack on the democratic foundations of our country. It must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible be identified and punished.”

    As the Congress made attempts to take up the snooping row to the Parliament on Monday, Rahul  tweeted: “We know what he’s been reading-everything on your phone! #Pegasus.”

    With this, he tagged his July 16 tweet saying: “I’m wondering what you guys are reading these days.”

    ALSO READ | Reports of snooping on Indians aimed at maligning Indian democracy: IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

    More than 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including those of two serving ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders, and one sitting judge besides scores of business persons and activists in India could have been targeted for hacking through Israeli spyware sold only to government agencies, an international media consortium had earlier reported on Sunday.

    However, the NSO Group, an Israeli company that sells Pegasus spyware worldwide, denied all allegations and reports of such surveillance in India. 

    The Indian government too dismissed allegations of any kind of surveillance on its part on specific people, saying it “has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever”.

    Asserting that “India is a robust democracy that is committed to ensuring the right to privacy to all its citizens as a fundamental right”, the government dismissed the media report as an attempt to play “the role of an investigator, prosecutor as well as jury”.

    The report was published by The Wire news portal from India as well as 16 other international publications including the Washington Post, Guardian and Le Monde as media partners to an investigation conducted by Paris-based media non-profit organisation Forbidden Stories and rights group Amnesty International into a leaked list of more than 50,000 phone numbers from across the world that are believed to have been the target of surveillance through the Pegasus software of Israeli surveillance company NSO Group.

    The Wire reported that forensic tests conducted as part of the media investigation project on a small cross-section of phones associated with these numbers revealed clear signs of targeting by Pegasus spyware in 37 phones, of which 10 are Indian.

    The initial report came just a day before the start of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on Monday and has created quite a storm.