Israeli software used to snoop on journalists, activists worldwide: Report

A collaborative investigation involving more than 80 journalists in 4 continents on Sunday showed how powerful spyware licensed only to governments targeted journalists, activists and more. The investigation was conducted by 17 media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, CNN, the New York Times, Al Jazeera, Guardian, Economist, Reuters.

NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, licensed to governments around the globe, can infect phones without a click. Pegasus is a malware that infects iPhones and Android devices to enable operators of the tool to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones. NSO Group, an Israeli firm, is a leader in private spyware industry.

Reporters were able to identify more than 1,000 people through research and interviews on four continents: several Arab royal family members, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials.

The consortium found many of the phone numbers in at least 10 country clusters, which were subjected to deeper analysis: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In India, the numbers of phones belonging to hundreds of journalists, activists, opposition politicians, government officials and business executives were on the list, as were numbers in several other countries in the region, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Pakistan, reported Washington Post.

Over 40 Indian journalists from prominent outlets featured on the list.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology refuted the reports of surveillance of journalists and said, "There has been no unauthorised interception by government agencies."

"The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever. In the past, similar claims were made regarding the use of Pegasus on WhatsApp by the Indian State. Those reports also had no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties, including WhatsApp in the Indian Supreme Court," the Ministry said in its response.

"This news report, thus, also appears to be a similar fishing expedition, based on conjectures and exaggerations to malign the Indian democracy and its institutions," the Ministry added.

NSO has long insisted that the governments to whom it licenses Pegasus are contractually bound to only use the powerful spying tool to fight “serious crime and terrorism”, reported Guardian.