India Using the Pegasus program to spy with journalists “high level”. This was reported this Thursday by an investigation by Amnesty International and Washington Post reveals more details about this attack privacy of the citizens of the Asian power.
Towards the end of October, manzana warns prime minister’s nationalist government Narendra Modi could have sponsored espionage A group of more than 20 famous reporters and opposition figures. New Delhi As Capital newspaper revealed today, he rejected the report and, behind closed doors, pressured the American technology company to soften its conclusions and provide alternative explanations.
Two months later, NGO researchers publicly stated that: mobile Many respected journalists were infected with Pegasus. This is the case of Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of the news portal Phoneand Anand Mangnale, editor Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
How Pegasus works
Pegasus is controversial “very invasive” software produced by Israeli group NSO Group It has the ability to secretly penetrate devices to steal all the information circulating there, without arousing the suspicion of the owners.
The last case detected in India occurred in October 2023, but in recent years it has been found to be used in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Hungary, Rwanda or others. Spain. Its victims include journalists, humanitarian organizations and political opponents, as well as heads of state. In our country, it is known that the Israeli program infected the mobile phones of political leaders and independence activists in Catalonia, as well as the President of the Government Pedro Sánchez.
“Unprecedented” pressure
In its report, Amnesty International condemned the use of Pegasus in India “occurring in the midst of confusion”. oppression unprecedented Freedom of expression and a peaceful assembly by the authorities.” He also points out that many of those being spied on were critics of the Modi administration.
“Our latest findings show that journalists in India face increasing threats surveillance “Not only are they illegal for doing their job, but other means of oppression such as imprisonment under draconian laws, smear campaigns, harassment and intimidation are also illegal,” said Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, director of the NGO’s Security Lab.