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Editor’s Note

Stealth of surveillance

in the Pegasus Breach

TEHELKA’S COVER STORY in this issue is about the ment’s expectations for proactive engagement on these
privacy that is at peril in cyberspace in view of the dis- issues.” The Computer Emergency Response Team
closure that an Israeli group used spyware to snoop on (CERT-In) had published a vulnerability note on May 17
human rights activists and journalists in India. Almost advising countermeasures to users about a vulnerabil-
at the same time, a malware attack was detected at ity in WhatsApp, according to Union Information and
the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
through an infected device. It is an established fact that While the government has tried to shift the focus to
professional hackers can cause huge damage by enter- WhatsApp, one needs to understand that WhatsApp is
ing the network to steal private data. not the only gateway for Pegasus. NSO employs various
In the Israeli case, the spyware got installed on techniques to target and take control of a user’s phones
the phone with just a missed call, giving access to the as the Google Play Store and the Apple App store have
phone’s operating system, compromising both privacy end number of apps with inherent vulnerabilities and
and security. The paradox is that WhatsApp, which was NSO like companies could easily enter the users net-
already in the dock for offering a platform for fake news, work to steal personal and private information. Pegasus
is the culprit even in this case. The fact is that the Israeli is a state-of-the-art spyware, and NSO charges an exor-
state-of-the art spyware Pegasus that was used to snoop bitant sum for its product and services.
on Human Rights activists, journalists and others can The government needs to investigate who in India
takeover an individual’s privacy. can afford to hire NSO and is interested in targeting
The allegations that the governments and its agen- select activists, lawyers and journalists, especially
cies for snooping use spyware like Pegasus and surveil- when NSO itself claims that it sells the software only to
lance makes the issue all the more grave. The govern- government agencies. The government must also
ment’s reaction to revelation by WhatsApp, which is explain what steps it is going to take to ensure that
owned by Facebook that it is suing the Israeli Company, privacy as a right is protected. Ironically, the Israeli
is inadequate because privacy is in peril. It is okay to Company NSO says on its website that “NSO products
ask WhatsApp why the breach happened, but the gov- are used exclusively by government intelligence and
ernment must answer and clear all doubts in public law enforcement agencies”, making the government
domain as under whose directions Indian citizens were itself a suspect in this snoop gate. We need strong data
snooped? protection laws to ward off dangers to privacy.
The Facebook-owned instant messaging app, mean-
while, has regretted that it did not meet the “Govern- CHARANJIT AHUJA

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VOLUME 16, ISSUE NO. 23, RELEASED ON 22 NOVEMBER, NUMBER OF PAGES INCLUDING COVER 68
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