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Pegasus spyware

2021 OCT 27

Preliminary   > Security   >   Cyber security   >   Fundamental rights

Why in news?

  • Ruling that the state does not get a free pass every time the spectre of national security is raised, the Supreme Court on 27th October appointed a committee comprising three technical members and supervised by its retired judge Justice R V Raveendran to conduct a “thorough inquiry” into allegations of use of Pegasus software for unauthorised surveillance.

About Pegasus:

  • Pegasus is a spyware developed by the Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group that can be covertly installed on mobile phones (and other devices) running most versions of iOS and Android.
  • The 2021 Project Pegasus revelations suggest that the current Pegasus software can exploit all recent iOS versions.
  • As of 2016, Pegasus was capable of reading text messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords, location tracking, accessing the target device's microphone and camera, and harvesting information from apps.

Use by India

  • In 2019, Facebook initiated a suit against NSO, claiming that Pegasus had been used to intercept the WhatsApp communications of a number of activists, journalists, and bureaucrats in India, leading to accusations that the Indian government was involved.
  • Phone numbers of Indian ministers, opposition leaders, ex-election commissioners and journalists were allegedly found on a database of NSO hacking targets by Project Pegasus in 2021

Add ons:

  • Pegasus was discovered in August 2018 after a failed attempt at installing it on an iPhone belonging to a human rights activist led to an investigation revealing details about the spyware, its abilities etc.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

The word ‘Pegasus’ is sometimes mentioned in media in reference to:

(a) Fossils of a kind of dinosaurs

(b) Hacking software

(c) A cave system found in North-East India

(d) Space exploration

Answer