Pegasus Spyware News: WhatsApp has won the case filed against NSO Group, the company that makes Pegasus spyware. In this case going on in the American court, the judge while giving the verdict in favor of WhatsApp said that this Israeli company has violated American hacking laws and the terms of service of WhatsApp. With the victory of WhatsApp, its claim that phones of 1400 people were hacked is proved. Out of these 1400 people, 300 plus are from India.
Meta’s messaging app WhatsApp had said that in May 2019, phones were hacked through Pegasus. How much fine NSO will have to pay to Meta will be decided next year. But with this the debate on phone tapping can start again in India.
Pegasus had said, we deal with the government only…
In 2021, Pegasus was claimed to be used on more than 300 Indian mobile numbers, which included two sitting ministers of the Modi government, three opposition leaders, several journalists and businessmen. Although the government had denied this. The company that makes Pegasus says that it deals only with governments and government agencies. Now that the NSO case has been lost in the American court, its old files can be opened once again in India. However, in 2021, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav had said, India’s surveillance laws ensure that there is no unauthorized supervision and the talk of tapping is false.
Then NSO Group had also termed the allegations of espionage as false.
The matter had reached the Supreme Court, investigation was underway. According to this report of Indian Express, the Supreme Court had formed an investigation committee after the petitions filed amid allegations of use of Pegasus in India. The committee had found nothing but had noted that the central government had not cooperated with the panel. The report is sealed and has not been released publicly since.
Tags: Tech news, World news
FIRST PUBLISHED : December 22, 2024, 10:21 IST