India is using an Israeli company’s software called Pegasus to hack the smartphones of government officials, journalists, and human rights activists around the world. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s number also appeared on the surveillance list according to an investigation by 17 media organizations.
The news has been widely covered in the international media. According to a news outlet, 1000 cell phone numbers in India appeared on the surveillance list while 100 were from Pakistan. PM Imran Khan’s number was also on the surveillance list, but it remains unconfirmed whether the attempt was successful or not.
According to the Indian investigative news website, The Wire, 300 mobile numbers appeared on the list of which 40 were Indian journalists from a famous publication as well as the founding editors of The Wire.
Responding to the news, Fawad Chaudhry, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, tweeted that “Extremely concerned with the release of news that the Indian Govt used Israeli software to spy on Journalists, political opponents, and politicians, unethical policies of Modi Government have dangerously polarised India and the region… more details are emerging”.
Shireen Mazari, Federal Human Rights Minister also spoke about the expansion and stated that the Indian government was spying on its minister expected today.
The list also included the Arab royal families, 85 human rights activists,65 business executives,189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians including Prime Ministers.
The report stated that most of the people on the list are from 10 countries: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Pegasus is very powerful software that can switch on a target’s phone camera microphone and also can access your data. Sometimes it can also be installed on your phone without hitting any download button.
NSO, the Israeli technology firm that developed Pegasus spyware, however, has denied the allegation and said: “We firmly deny the false allegations made in their report. We would like to emphasize that NSO sells its technologies solely to law enforcement and intelligence agencies of vetted governments for the sole purpose of saving lives through preventing crime and terror acts.”