PEGASUS SPYWARE – MODI’S PERIL OR OPPOSITION’S PITFALL

 

Preface:

The Post is pretty long and many may skip it.

So, in order to help those skipping it, I like to give a very brief summary of what the articles are about, as the Pegasus became a debating and talking and agitating points even since Pegasus Project Report containing cell numbers belonging to many celebrities world over including India.

Point 1: Spying and Using of Spyware Software are legal with some conditions.

Point 2: Supreme Court ruled: Privacy was not a guaranteed right and is not absolute and right to privacy was not recognized as a fundamental right. Human Rights Violations should be viewed under this ruling.

Point 3: Even the Pegasus Report had admitted that mere presence of a number in the list does not necessarily mean it was hacked. Worldwide only 67 smart phones were said to be tested of which only 23 cells were infected by the Pegasus spyware and the share of India’s infested cells were only 6 in number.

 Point 4: NSO – Owner of Pegasus Spyware denied that the cell numbers in the list is not a list of targets or potential targets of Pegasus and the numbers are erroneous and false and outrageous. NSO is considering a defamation lawsuit including The Wire – India based political web news.

Point 5: Pegasus Controversy has now become subjudice and the Supreme Court is hearing a petition.  

Point 6: Modi Government denied the allegations of misuse of spyware.

 

Now Others can go through the article from here:

The High Pitch Widely Sponsored Pegasus Spyware controversy is to be seen in the light of many angles – viz. Legal, Legislature, Safety and Security of the Nation, Secured Privacy and Unfettered Freedom of Speech.

Before going into the details of the episode, it should be noted that the Governments – both Central and States – are legally empowered under law to do surveillance (spying).

The Information Technology (IT) Act 2000 – Section 69 gives the power to the Governments for the surveillance of any – individual, firm, company - and on finding a threat to national security, national integrity, security of the state, then the governments can legally impose restrictions, intercept, decrypt or monitor internet traffic or electronic data etc. and also to take suitable actions against them according to the threats’ perspective.

The Supreme Court ruled that privacy was not a guaranteed right and is not absolute and that right to privacy was not recognized as a fundamental right, though privacy was essential for personal liberty under Article 21.

A petition was filed by senior journalists N. Ram and Sashi Kumar in the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe by its sitting or retired judge into mass surveillance of over 142 potential “targets”, including journalists, lawyers, ministers, Opposition politicians, constitutional functionaries and civil society activists, using military-grade Israeli spyware Pegasus.       

 Over 500 individuals and groups – had written a letter to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana for an immediate intervention of the Supreme Court in the matter to declare a moratorium on the export, sale, transfer and use of Pegasus spyware in India.

The letter was signed by activists, including Aruna Roy, Anjali Bhardwaj, Harsh Mander, scholars and eminent lawyers like Vrinda Grover, Jhuma Sen among others. They also urged the court to direct the Centre and the Israeli firm NSO to answer questions regarding the “state-sponsored cyber-warfare” waged against Indian citizens.

Further Seven opposition parties (BSP, RLP, SAD, National Conference, CPI, CPI (M), NCP) recently wrote to the President of India seeking directions to discuss the Pegasus report in the ongoing Monsoon session of Parliament.

All these ruckus were due to the release of Pegasus Project Report by Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories and 17 Medias including the Wire – India based Online Political Anti-Modi Website on July 18, 2021 – just a day before the Indian Parliament was scheduled to function.

It was a deliberate attempt by Amnesty International to create pandemonium in parliament in spite of pandemic situations to undermine India and in particular Modi in India and worldwide.  

Yes, Pegasus Project and its publication can be termed as Virus Malicious Anti-India Move purely to stop Modi becoming a Popular Leader and more so a prelude to stop Modi from becoming again Prime Minister for the third time – or at least to aim to stop BJP securing Majority Seats in Parliament and the Pegasus Project Report had come as tool kit to hit Modi Government so as to deliberately create chaos in both houses resulting in its adjournments since July 19.

Amit Shaw, Home Minister, had observed:

“Obstructers (political players in India) at the behest of the Disruptors (global organizations) was to 'humiliate India' at the world stage, 'peddle' the same old narratives about our nation and 'derail' India’s development trajectory. People of India are very good at understanding this chronology and connection. Modi government’s priority is clear –‘National Welfare’ and we will keep working to achieve that no matter what happens.”

To get into the crux of the entire issue, we should know the players behind this episode and the players who are listed below, will be analyzed so as to have a clear and perfect picture of the entire controversy.

1.      Pegasus Project Report – Prepared and published by Paris-based media Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International.

2.     NSO – Israeli Intelligence Firm and its spyware product – Pegasus.

3.      Citizen Lab – is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, Canada – Citizen Lab reviewed and validated Pegasus Project Report of Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories.

4.    The Wire – Online News Website owned by Siddarth Varadarajan. 

 

Pegasus Project Report:

Pegasus is a spyware software marketed by NSO – An Israeli Intelligence (surveillance) Firm. Pegasus is a spyware developed by NSO Group, an Israeli firm that helps spies and hack into phones. In 2019, when WhatsApp sued the firm in a U.S. court, the matter came to light.

Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories gained access to a leak of more than 50,000 phone numbers allegedly entered into a system by Pegasus Spyware Software by its users who bought it for huge amounts running into crores. It was also revealed that Governments of Mexico, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, the UAE , Rwanda and India were the users of Pegasus.

Amnesty International’s web site had this information:

“The Pegasus Project is a ground-breaking collaboration by more than 80 journalists from 17 media organizations in 10 countries coordinated by Forbidden Stories, with the technical support of Amnesty International who conducted cutting-edge forensic tests on mobile phones to identify traces of the spyware.

NSO Group has insisted that Pegasus software is legally used to “collect data from the mobile devices of specific suspected major criminals”. However, our recent investigation has proven that there is parallel use of the tool against civil society that is in clear violation of international human rights law.”

Hence their Pegasus Project Report was said to be a major clarion call to high light a global human rights crisis and to stop this spy business by NSO through their Pegasus Sophisticated Spy Products.

In the preparation and publication of Pegasus Project Report, Amnesty International was duly assisted by 17 news organizations including the Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde, and Delhi-based The Wire.

Citizen Lab was also helped Amnesty International to cross check and validate the NSO’s hacking spyware’s users in targeting the cells listed in the leaked document – the source of which was not yet known, but, widely circulated by the media. 

The list contains 50,000 telephone numbers of people identified as potential targets via Pegasus between 2016 and June 2021.

The names include at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists and over 600 politicians and government officials, including heads of state, prime ministers, cabinet ministers, diplomats, military and security officers.

Out of the total 939 cell numbers said to be hacked by the Pegasus, 300 belongs to India. Over 300 people in the list were Indian politicians, activists, business persons and journalists.

While the presence of a number in the list does not necessarily mean it was hacked, investigators were able to confirm with forensic analysis that at least 37 smartphones of journalists, human rights activists and business executives were hacked.

Believed to be one of the most powerful mobile phone hacking tools available, Pegasus enables clients to secretly read every message of a target, track their location, operate their microphone and even film them through their camera remotely.

The malware infects both ios and Android devices and grants access to all information stored in a smartphone.

The Wire by its investigation of affected cells in the said list owned by Indians alleged to have been hacked with Pegasus Spyware tools had published the following findings:

As NSO Group, while denying the allegations of its’ spyware software being misused, said that their  technologies were sold solely to law enforcement & intelligence agencies of ‘vetted governments’ (36 based on the report) to prevent crime and terror act, the Wire surmised that this is a confirmation that ‘surveillance’ happened and that too by Governments and hence by inference, it could be inferred the Government India had used the Pegasus in view of the fact any private entity in India or abroad cannot access the data in this case.

It is also a fact which even The Wire itself conceded that the presence of a number in the database does not automatically mean the phone was hacked or infected with Pegasus and that they are only potential targets phones for hacking.

Overall only 67 smart phones were said to be tested of which 23 were successfully infected and 14 having signs of attempted penetration and the test on the remaining 30 phones test inconclusive. Of the 37, the Wire says 10 were Indian phones.  Out of these 10, 6 phones they claimed contained traces of Pegasus.

Hence The Wire’s Investigative Report and even the Pegasus Project Report was restricted to 67 cell phones worldwide and only 23 cells were infected by the Pegasus spyware and the share of India’s infested cells were only 6 in number for which the opposition parties were stalling the both houses of Parliament from transacting any business or discussion on important issues but wanted to discuss first the Pegasus Project Report on a priority basis.

The journalists whose phones had traces of ‘Pegasus’ are known to have a dubious stance against the establishment and 2 of them being the Wire’s founding editors themselves.

Apart from this, numbers of Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, political strategist Prashant Kishor and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s MP nephew Abhishek Banerjee have also emerged in the leaked database.

As a clarification, Amnesty had confirmed that the leaked phone members were not of NSO Pegasus Spyware list and that the list of phone numbers was only indicative of the interests of the company’s clients – that means intended potential target numbers for spying only and not necessarily infected with Pegasus Spyware.

As pointed out by the new IT Minister (his cell number also found in the leaked list of target phones), the IT minister had observed that the official surveillance was already addressed by the Union Government in 2019 itself, in response to an RTI by the consortium of journalists involved in the Pegasus Project and all allegations of hacking or unauthorized surveillance using Pegasus were categorically denied in the RTI reply and the parliament.

The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research and development at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.

https://citizenlab.ca

A report by The Citizen Lab revealed in December 2020 that the NSO Group shifted towards zero-click exploits for network-based attack. It allowed the government customers to break into the target phones without interaction and without leaving any visible traces. According to the report, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates used the zero-click tool of the Pegasus spyware and deployed it through an opening in iMessage, to target two London-based reporters and 36 journalists at the Al Jazeera television network in Qatar.

The citizen lab by its independent peer review had validated that Amnesty International’s forensic methodology correctly identified infections with NSO Pegasus spyware.

A recent investigation by The Citizen Lab found another Israeli company sold spyware called  Candiru to foreign governments.

NSO - an Israel Cyber Intelligence firm – Owner of Pegasus Spyware

https://www.nsogroup.com/

Now let us know about NSO – a private company based in Israel.

NSO Group Technology is a subsidiary of the Q Cyber Technologies group of companies and NSO stands for Niv, Shalev and Omri, the names of the company's founders.

It is an Israeli technology firm. It was founded in 2010 and is based in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, Israel.

Pegasus is its product. NSO had improved its version of Pegasus thereby it had moved from ‘installation of its spyware into the target’s phone by a click on the link in the malicious message’ to ‘zero click technology’ where Pegasus becomes operational without needing any user input.

Pegasus was potentially used to access their data and surveil them. The technology could even be potentially used to plant data onto a targeted individual’s phones.

NSO Group, which created and leases the Pegasus spyware, has denied the list of  ’50,000 phone numbers’ as alleged by Amnesty. It said the spyware is only meant for use in fighting crime and that it is exported only after the approval of Israel's defence ministry.

NSO Group defended itself by saying that millions of people around the world sleep well at night and walk in the streets safely due to such technologies available with intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

NSO further added: It provides cyber intelligence tools for governments because law enforcement agencies around the world are in the dark and there's no regulatory solution that allows them to monitor malicious acts on instant messaging and social media.

NSO licenses Pegasus to governments in 45 undisclosed countries, and has maintained that they do not operate the systems once sold to their clients, nor do they have access to the data of their client’s targets.

The NSO Group has also denied the Pegasus Report and had explained: "After checking their claims, we firmly deny the false allegations made in their report. Their sources have supplied them with information that has no factual basis, as evident by the lack of supporting documentation for many of their claims. In fact, these allegations are so outrageous and far from reality, that NSO is considering a defamation lawsuit. Further The Israeli firm,  through its defamation counsel, Clare Locke, had sent a letter to The Wire threatening defamation suit against The Wire for publishing a report that claimed phones of journalists, Indian ministers, Supreme Court judges, opposition leaders and other notable personalities were targeted for surveillance. After the list came to light, Israel's defence establishment set up a committee to review the firm's business, including the process through which export licenses are granted. Israel has also denied having access to information from Pegasus.

Facebook has sued NSO Group in the US for allegedly targeting some 1,400 users of its encrypted messaging service WhatsApp with a zero-click exploit. The spyware is also reported to have exploited weaknesses in iPhone’s iMessage app.

The Pegasus spyware is classified as a weapon by Israel and any export of the technology must be approved by the government.  The Israeli Ministry of Defense licenses the export of Pegasus to foreign governments, but not to private entities.

Contractual obligations require NSO’s customers to limit the use of the company’s products to the prevention and investigation of serious crimes, including terrorism, and to ensure that the products will not be used to violate human rights.

The following message from NSO website under the head “Enough Is Enough” is worth capturing:

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

In light of the recent planned and well-orchestrated media campaign lead by Forbidden Stories and pushed by special interest groups, and due to the complete disregard of the facts, NSO is announcing it will no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter and it will not play along with the vicious and slanderous campaign.

We will state again: In light of the recent planned and well-orchestrated media campaign lead by Forbidden Stories and pushed by special interest groups, and due to the complete disregard of the facts, NSO is announcing it will no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter and it will not play along with the vicious and slanderous campaign.

We will state again: The list is not a list of targets or potential targets of Pegasus. The numbers in the list are not related to NSO group.

Any claim that a name in the list is necessarily related to a Pegasus target or Pegasus potential target is erroneous and false.

NSO is a technology company. We do not operate the system, nor do we have access to the data of our customers, yet they are obligated to provide us with such information under investigations.

NSO will thoroughly investigate any credible proof of misuse of its technologies, as we always had, and will shut down the system where necessary.

Israel is not the only country hosting companies that sell “hack-for-hire” spyware. Similar to Pegasus, Germany's FinFisher is also marketed as a tool to agencies to fight crime. But it has also faced accusations of being used for abusive surveillance, including on Bahraini journalists and activists.

Besides, Italian firm Hacking Team was at the centre of its own Pegasus-style scandal in 2015 when a leak revealed it was selling spyware to dozens of governments worldwide. Hence Spyware Technology has a global reach and it is also debatable whether such spyware is a menace to global human rights or a powerful toll to combat terrorisms and anti-national movements by the ruling governments. 

General:

PEGASUS was a mythical winged horse from Greek mythology. It allowed Bellerophon, the Corinthian hero, to ride him in order to defeat th monstrous Chimera, but, the rider was hurt and died. Pegasus was then turned by Zero, Greek God of Sky with thunderbolt as weapon, into a constellation – group of stars forming a pattern.

Now Pegasus had come down from sky as a powerful spyware like a thunderbolt to create problems and headaches to the 10 Governments who were the customers of NSO Pegasus tool. India may also be one amongst the 10 nations.

Conclusion:

Indian Government said:  "India is a robust democracy that is committed to ensuring the right to privacy to all its citizens as a fundamental right. There has been no unauthorized interception by government agencies. The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever. The news report appears to be a fishing expedition, based on conjectures and exaggerations to malign the Indian democracy and its institutions.

All the information regarding phone-tapping is with the government, and not with the company providing.

It just provides the software. Are they trying to say that the government is leaking the data?"

 

Chief Justice Ramana and Justice Kant, in the process of hearing the petitions in the Pegasus snooping issue, had observed:

The allegations about the government using Israel based technology to spy on civilians, journalists, Ministers, parliamentarians and activists were no doubt serious, provided the news reports were true.

The majority of the petitions were based on reports in foreign newspapers. Whether there was any other verifiable material based on which it could order an enquiry into the Pegasus allegations?

Apart from international materials and resources, should you not have made more efforts?

Questions regarding surveillance had popped up over two years ago. Why have you come now suddenly? What were you doing for two years? Why the targets have not taken criminal action? If your phone was hacked, why did you not file a criminal complaint?

The answers for these questions will be heard by the Supreme Court to deliver its judgement. In all probability, the Supreme Court will ask the government to assure for ‘no spying on civilians so as to ensure human rights as enshrined in the Constitution. Let us wait and see what comes out these petitions.

In the midst of too much of noises, the truth becomes the casualty.

One thing is certain. Honesty and Integrity of some media, journals, and activists are not above board and they are open supporters of Anti-National Forces and Groups jeopardizing the democracy leading to anarchy, chaos and turmoil thereby stopping the developmental activities of the present government. In the world arena, Modi Government was rated high much to the eye sore of these anti-Indian Think Tank Gang. 

THINK INDIA THINK.

SATYAMEVA JAYATHE.