WhatsApp has won a lawsuit against NSO Group Technologies, the company that created the controversial Pegasus spyware. In 2019, Meta had accused the Israeli company of infecting as many as 1,400 phone devices. Now, a ruling by a US district court judge Phyllis Hamilton says the company didn’t just violate US hacking laws but also infringed upon WhatsApp’s terms of service.
After the ruling, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala has asked if the Supreme Court would conduct “further inquiry” into the issue, particularly about those targeted in India.
Pegasus is a cyber intelligence spyware used by intelligence agencies and governments. The malware was reportedly used to spy on Whatsapp chats, call logs, SMS, emails, browser history and even other files stored in devices. Around the world, more than 50,000 phone numbers were targeted by the spyware. The targets included more than 600 politicians and government officials; 85 human rights activists, close to 200 journalists, including many prominent names in India and even members of the Arab royal family!
How does Pegasus work?
Pegasus sent messages to the victims with malicious links. When engaged with this the spyware infected the device. The initial avatars of Pegasus used phishing to enter phones, utilising a message designed to entice the target to click on a link. Later, it evolved into “zero-click” attacks with the phones being infected without any action from the target individual.
By 2019, the perpetrator simply had place a WhatsApp call to infect a device.
Which governments were suspected of using Pegasus?
Pegasus had claimed that it was primarily used by governments around the globe. According to NordVPN, India, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arab and United Arab Emirates were the biggest customers of Pegasus. In 2022, it was found that 12 countries of the European Union were still working with Pegasus.
Why was Pegasus so controversial in India?
In July 2021 details about the possibility of Pegasus spying devices came to light in India. Reports claimed around 300 individuals had been tracked by the spyware. These included journalists, businesspersons, leaders of civil society, two central government ministers and three opposition leaders.
In October 2021, The Supreme Court ordered an investigation into the allegations. A three-member probe panel, headed by Justice Raveendran, was formed for this. The panel found a malware in five out of the 29 devices it received. It was unclear if the spyware was Pegasus.
Now that a ruling has called out the firm behind the spyware, will India go back to complete the probe?
