A big controversy arose last year when NSO Group Concerns over privacy-related issues have cropped up in several countries, including India, with the alleged use of its Pegasus software by some governments to spy on journalists, human rights defenders, politicians and others.
The NYT said in a report titled ‘The Battle for the World’s Most Powerful Cyberweapon’ that the Israeli firm NSO Group had been selling its surveillance software on a subscription basis to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world for nearly a decade. , promising that it can do what no one else can – not a private company, not even a state intelligence service – make the encrypted communications of any iPhone or Android smartphone consistent and reliable. can crack.”
PM also mentioned in the report Narendra ModiVisit to Israel in July 2017 – To become the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the country.
“For decades, India had maintained a policy of “commitment to the Palestinian cause” and relations with Israel were cold. Modi’s visit, however, was particularly cordial, with both his (then Israeli) prime minister (Benjamin) Complete with a carefully staged moment of walking barefoot on a local beach with Netanyahu,” it said.
“He had a reason for warm feelings. Their countries had agreed to the sale of a package of sophisticated weapons and intelligence gear, worth about US$2 billion – with Pegasus and a missile system as the centerpiece. “Months later, Netanyahu made a rare state visit to India. And in June 2019, India voted in the United Nations Economic and Social Council to deny observer status to a Palestinian human rights organization in support of Israel, a first for the country,” the report said. .
PTI has reached out to the government for a response on the NYT report, but there was no immediate response.
Last year, a row erupted israeli spyware pegasus allegedly being used Targeted Surveillance in India,
The government, however, dismissed the allegations of any surveillance on its part on specific people, saying it had “no solid foundation or truth attached to it”.
In October last year, the Supreme Court set up a 3-member independent expert panel to investigate the alleged use of the Israeli spyware Pegasus for targeted surveillance in India, observing that the state had to “freedom” every time there was a threat to national security. pass” cannot be found. and that its mere invocation cannot make the judiciary a “silent spectator” and shy away from it. The NYT report said the FBI also purchased a version of Pegasus, “NSO’s premier spying tool.”
Last summer the FBI “decided not to deploy NSO weapons. It was around this time that a consortium of news organizations called Forbidden Stories made new revelations about NSO cyber weapons and their use against journalists and political dissidents.” Did it Pegasus System Currently inactive at the facility in New Jersey. ,
An international investigative association had claimed that several Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were potentially targeted by NSO Group’s phone hacking software.
The report states that since 2011 when NSO introduced “Pegasus” to the global market, it has “helped Mexican authorities to nab Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug lord known as El Chapo”.
European investigators have quietly used Pegasus to thwart terrorist plots, fight organized crime and, in one case, dismantle a global child-abuse ring, identifying dozens of suspects in more than 40 countries.
“In a broader sense, NSO’s products seemed to solve one of the biggest problems facing law-enforcement and intelligence agencies in the 21st century: that criminals and terrorists have more information than investigators about encrypting their communications. had better technology to decrypt them.
However, over the years, “the many abuses of Pegasus were also well documented”.
“Mexico deployed software not only against gangsters but also against journalists and political dissidents. The United Arab Emirates used software to hack the phone of a civil rights activist who was jailed by the government.
“Saudi Arabia used it against women’s rights activists and, according to a lawsuit filed by a Saudi dissident, to spy on communications with Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was killed by Saudi operatives in Istanbul in 2018 and destroyed,” the NYT report said.
The report said that its annual investigation, which includes interviews with government officials, leaders of intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, cyber weapons experts, business executives and privacy activists in a dozen countries, “shows that NSO’s cyber weapons How Israel’s ability to approve or deny access to access is entangled in its diplomacy.”
“Countries such as Mexico and Panama, after gaining access to Pegasus, have shifted their positions in major votes in the United Nations to Israel,” the report said.
Amid a raging worldwide controversy, Israel in July set up a committee to review NSO Group’s allegations of misuse of surveillance software and signaled a possible “review of the entire licensing issue”.
The then chief executive of NSO, Shalev Hulio, then welcomed the move, saying that “it would be very happy if there was an investigation so that we could clear our name”.
Hulio also claimed that there was an attempt to “smear the entire Israeli cyber industry”.
Israel, in November last year, distanced itself from a controversy started by the NSO Group, when the US blacklisted the technology firm that developed Pegasus spyware that was allegedly used by government officials, activists and journalists globally. It said it was a private company and had nothing to do with the policies of the Israeli government.
US sanctions alleged abuse of Herzliya-based company phone hacking spyware countries around the world including India.
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