Phones of at least 40 journalists hacked using Pegasus spyware, says report; govt denies unauthorised interception

Phone numbers of at least 40 Indian journalists have been found on a leaked database of targets for hacking that used Israeli spyware 'Pegasus', a report published by an online news portal said on July 19.

The central government, however, said in its response that "no unauthorised interception" has taken place and that the report is not only “bereft of facts” but also “founded in pre-conceived conclusions”.

The report published by online news platform The Wire said the leaked data includes the numbers of top journalists at big media houses. The report said the data shows that most of the names were targeted between 2018 and 2019, in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha general elections.

The report said the presence of a phone number in the data does alone not reveal whether a device was infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack. “However, the Pegasus Project that analysed this list believes the data is indicative of potential targets identified in advance of possible surveillance attempts,” it said.

What is in the data leak?

Pegasus is sold by the Israeli company NSO Group, which says it only offers its spyware to “vetted governments”, according to the report

Pegasus was in the news in 2019 when it was found that spies used the spyware to hack into phones of roughly 1,400 users around the world, including 121 Indians.

The data leak is a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers that, since 2016, are believed to have been selected as those of people of interest by government clients of NSO Group, which sells surveillance software. The data also contains the time and date that numbers were selected, or entered on to a system. Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based nonprofit journalism.

Government’s response

The centre said "no unauthorised interception" by government agencies has taken place.

"In furtherance of this commitment, it has also introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, to protect the personal data of individuals and to empower users of social media platforms," the government statement said.