Page 4 - Spying

China says it is looking into report of spy balloon over US, urges calm

China said Friday it was looking into reports that a Chinese spy satellite has been flying in US airspace and urged calm. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning also said she had no information about whether a planned trip to China by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would proceed next week as scheduled. China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international laws, and China has no intention to violate the territory and airspace of any sovereign countries. As for the balloon, as I've mentioned just now, we are looking into and verifying the situation and hope that both sides can handle this together calmly and carefully," Mao said at a daily briefing. Mao said that politicians and the public should withhold judgment before we have a clear understanding of the facts. Blinken had been due to arrive in China on Friday, becoming the highest ranking US official to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic began. He would arrive amid a sharp downturn in relations betw

Iran hangs former defence ministry official Ali Akbari in spy claim

Iran said Saturday it executed a former high-ranking defence ministry official and dual Iranian-British national, despite international warnings not to carry out the death sentence. The execution further escalated tensions with the West amid the nationwide anti-government protests shaking the Islamic Republic. The hanging of Ali Reza Akbari, a close ally of top security official Ali Shamkhani, suggests an ongoing power struggle within Iran's theocracy as it tries to contain the demonstrations over the September death of Mahsa Amini. It also harkened back to the mass purges of the military that immediately followed Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Akbari's hanging drew immediate anger from London, which along with the US and others has sanctioned Iran over the protests and its supplying Russia with the bomb-carrying drones now targeting Ukraine. This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people, British Prime

EU moves closer to new data transfer deal over spying concerns with US

The European Union moved closer to a clinching a revamped deal over transatlantic data transfers aimed at resolving concerns about U.S. spying with a draft decision that confirms comparable safeguards to those in the EU, which has stringent privacy rules. The EU's executive Commission released its draft decision approving the pact Tuesday, which follows a breakthrough preliminary agreement in March between Brussels and Washington to resolve a yearslong battle over the privacy of EU citizens' data that businesses routinely store in the U.S. That breakthrough was hailed by business groups, which said it will provide certainty to thousands of companies, including tech giants like Google and Facebook, sending data between Europe, which has stricter data privacy regulations, and the comparatively lax U.S., which lacks a comprehensive federal privacy law. Frictions over the transfers had raised the prospect that companies might need to keep European data out of the U.S. We are now confid

El Salvador journalists sue Israeli Pegasus spyware maker in US court

Journalists from an investigative news outlet in El Salvador sued NSO Group in United States federal court Wednesday after the Israeli firm's powerful Pegasus spyware was detected on their iPhones. In January, the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog, reported that dozens of journalists and human rights defenders in El Salvador had their cellphones repeatedly hacked with the spyware. Among them were journalists at the El Faro news site. These spyware attacks were an attempt to silence our sources and deter us from doing journalism, Carlos Dada, El Faro's co-founder and director, said in a statement released by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the El Faro journalists. We are filing this lawsuit to defend our right to investigate and report, and to protect journalists around the world in their pursuit of the truth, Dada said NSO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the .

Suspected Chinese spy infiltrated US politics through Trump: Report

Chinese businessman Tao Liu, who has a criminal background in China and is termed a fugitive, has recently met former US president Donald Trump in September

WhatsApp's cloned app spying on Indians via recording video, audio

India is among the countries with highest number of Android trojan detections and a cloned, third-party unofficial version of WhatsApp is leading in spying on people's chats

Japan protests Russia's expulsion of official, denies spying allegations

Japan protested to Russia on Tuesday over the detention of a Japanese consulate official on espionage allegations, denying the allegations and accusing Russian authorities of abusive interrogation. The official was detained on Sept 22 and interrogated with his eyes covered, his hands and head pressed and immobilised, Japan's Foreign Ministry said, prompting it to lodge a protest and to demand an apology. On Monday, Russia's Foreign Ministry notified Japan's Embassy in Moscow that the official had been declared persona non grata, or an undesirable person, on grounds he conducted illegal espionage activity and it ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours. The alleged illegal activity insisted by the Russian side is completely groundless, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. Matsuno said Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori summoned Russia's ambassador and strongly protested, demanding a formal apology from the Russian government and measures to prevent

EU drafts new media laws amid concern over spying, state pressure

The European Union's executive branch unveiled plans Friday for new laws that it said would help protect media freedom and independence in the 27-nation bloc at a time of mounting concern about the dangers of political influence in several member countries. Spurred into action allegations of state spying on reporters, the use of political pressure on news outlets and the placing of advertising to peddle influence, the European Commission said the EU needs a European Media Freedom Act. We see a lot of worrying trends regarding media in Europe, and it's not only a matter of one or two countries, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova told reporters in Brussels. She said the proposed legislation is needed for the times we live in, not for the times we would like to live in. The commission has criticised the governments of Hungary, Poland and Slovenia in recent years for trying to pressure their national media. But EU officials say they see the risk of political influence in mo

ISIS bride Shamima Begum was smuggled by Canadian spy, claims book

Shamima Begum, the London-born Bangladeshi-origin woman who fled the UK and joined the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist network as a teenager, was smuggled into Syria by a spy for Canada, a new book has claimed. The Secret History of the Five Eyes' by Richard Kerbaj, to be published on Thursday, claims that Canada privately admitted its involvement and then asked British authorities to cover up its role. The term "Five Eyes" refers to the network of intelligence-sharing between Canada, Britain, the US, Australia and New Zealand. "For seven years now this has been covered up by the Canadians, Kerbaj told the Guardian' and claimed that he interviewed multiple Canadian intelligence officials for the book to confirm the timeline of events. "I think the cover-up is worse than the offence in many ways here because you would expect human intelligence agencies to recruit members of criminal groups and terrorist groups, he said. Begum, referred to as an ISIS bride after marrying a Dutch fight

Malware found in 5 out of 29 phones, no conclusive evidence of Pegasus: SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday said that out of 29 phones submitted for examination, malware was found in five, but there is no conclusive proof that the spyware was Pegasus

Here's the real story of Isro 'spy' case that rocked the nation in 1990s

The espionage case dates back to 1994, when S. Nambi Narayanan, along with another scientist, was accused of selling classified information on India's cryogenic engine programme to Russia and Pakistan

SC asks Kerala govt to pay Rs 5 mn to ex-ISRO scientist as compensation

Welcoming the judgement, the former scientist Nambi Narayanan said the Kerala Police had "fabricated" the case

Isro spy case: Scientist was arrested unnecessarily and harassed, says SC

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra awarded Rs 5 million compensation to 76-year-old Narayanan for being subjected to mental cruelty in the case

ISRO spying case: CBI likely to record Nambi Narayanan's statement today

The Delhi Special Unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the alleged framing of space scientist Nambi Narayanan in the ISRO espionage case, reached Kerala on Monday

Assange faces 175-year sentence in US as UK judge approves extradition

The case will now go to Britain's interior minister for a decision, and the WikiLeaks founder still has legal avenues of appeal

Secret intelligence has unusually public role in Ukraine war

On Thursday a British spy chief said demoralised Russian troops were refusing to carry out orders and sabotaging their own equipment.

WB was offered Pegasus spyware for just Rs 25 cr, 4-5 years ago: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that the cyber-security company which developed Pegasus had approached the state police at least four to five years back

Pegasus case: SC postpones hearing to Friday on government's request

The matter was listed for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli on February 23

No information available with us: MEA on Pegasus spyware controversy

The NYT report said Pegasus and a missile system were the 'centrepieces' of a roughly $2 billion deal of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear between the India and Israel

Editors guild urges Justice Raveendran panel to take notice of Pegasus

The Editors Guild of India urged the Justice R V Raveendran committee to take cognisance of the "startling claims" made in a report about the purchase of the Pegasus spyware by India