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- Pegasus spyware hearing update; 10 days to the Supreme Court government
New Delhi5 hours ago
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The Pegasus espionage scandal was heard in the Supreme Court on Monday. The central government filed an affidavit in the court on this matter and said that it will form a committee of experts to investigate the alleged Pegasus espionage. At the same time, the court gave the government 10 days to make an appointment in the tribunal.
The Center termed the allegations leveled by the petitioners against the government regarding Pegasus as baseless. The petition said that the claims of spyware spying on journalists, politicians and staff are based on conjectures. A two-page affidavit has been filed by the Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information. It said that it was decided to conduct an inquiry to remove the misconceptions spread in this matter.
Petitioners instructed to be disciplined
Earlier on October 10, a hearing was held in the court on 9 applications related to Pegasus. Meanwhile, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had sought more time to file the government’s reply, after which the hearing was adjourned till August 16. At the same time, CJI NV Ramana had instructed the petitioners to be disciplined due to the ongoing debate on social media and websites on the matter.
What is the demand of petitioners?
The petitioners have demanded that the Pegasus case be investigated by a SIT constituted under the chairmanship of a retired or sitting judge of the Supreme Court. The Center should be asked to state whether the government or any of its agencies has directly or indirectly used Pegasus spyware for spying? Was Pegasus Spyware Licensed?
What is Pegasus?
- Pegasus is a spyware. Spyware, that is, software used for spying or surveillance. Through this, any phone can be hacked. After hacking, all the information including the camera, mic, messages and calls of that phone goes to the hacker. This spyware is made by the Israeli company NSO Group.
- Whose names are included in the list? The list includes 40 journalists, three top leaders of the opposition, a person holding a constitutional post, two ministers of the Modi government and several businessmen, including current and former heads of security agencies. These journalists are associated with institutions like Hindustan Times, Indian Express, TV-18, The Hindu, The Tribune, The Wire. Many independent journalists are also named among them.
How does Pegasus work?
- According to cybersecurity research group Citizen Lab, hackers use different methods to install Pegasus on a device. One way is to send an “exploit link” via message to the target device. As soon as the user clicks on this link, Pegasus is automatically installed on the phone.
- In 2019, when Pegasus was installed on devices via WhatsApp, hackers took a different approach. At that time, hackers took advantage of a bug in the video call feature of WhatsApp. The hackers made video calls to the target phone through a fake WhatsApp account. During this time Pegasus was installed in the phone through a code.
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