It lands on your cellphone with its giant wings flapping, penetrates the phone’s operating system, reads messages and emails, cracks passwords, tracks your location, and even accesses the mic and the camera. It is Pegasus, a dangerous spyware named after the winged horse in Greek mythology, and designed by the Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group to hack into cellphones through WhatsApp, the multimedia messaging platform owned by Facebook.
Pegasus can infect devices running on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems. Its snooping prowess is notorious—1,400 individuals in 45 nations have been targeted so far. India woke up to the Pegasus threat only recently, when it was revealed that 121 of the victims were Indians, most of them lawyers, activists and journalists.
NSO Group says it sells Pegasus to government clients only. So, when Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra revealed that she, too, was targeted, it resulted in an avalanche of allegations that the Union government was behind the snooping. “When WhatsApp sent messages to all those whose phones were hacked, one such message was also received by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra,” said Randeep Surjewala, chief spokesperson for the Congress, on November 2.
Four days earlier, WhatsApp had filed a lawsuit against NSO in a US court, saying Pegasus piggybacked on its app to infect cellphones. With 400 million users, India is WhatsApp’s biggest market. To contain the fallout from the security breach, the messaging giant has gone all out to assure users that their privacy and security remained its highest priority. It has reached out to the victims, asking them to update the app to protect themselves.
Denne historien er fra November 17, 2019-utgaven av THE WEEK.
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Denne historien er fra November 17, 2019-utgaven av THE WEEK.
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A golden girl
One of India's most formidable beauties passed away earlier this month. The odd thing is she would absolutely hate this obituary; she hated being written about and avoided publicity for all of her nine decades. Indira Aswani was 93 when she died. But anyone who encountered her, even briefly, was in such awe of her grace and poise, and one could not but remember her forever.
The interest in wine is growing delightfully in India
The renowned British wine writer and television presenter Jancis Robinson, 74, recently came to Delhi and Mumbai to reacquaint herself with India's wine industry. This was the Robinson's fourth visit to India; the last one was seven years ago. On this trip, Robinson and her husband, restaurateur Nicholas Lander, were hosted by the Taj Hotels and Sonal Holland, India's only Master of Wine.
United in the states
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COVER DRIVE
Usage-driven motor insurance policies offer several benefits
GDP as the only measure of progress is illogical
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India is not a controlling big brother
Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay considers India a benevolent elder sibling as the \"big brotherly attitude\" is happily missing from bilateral ties. He thinks the relationship shared by the two countries has become a model of friendship not just for the region, but for the entire world. \"India's attitude is definitely not of a big brother who is controlling and does not allow the little brother to blossom and grow,\" says Tobgay in an exclusive interview with THE WEEK.
Comrade with no foes
Lal Salaam, Comrade Yechury-you were quite a guy!
Pinning down saffron
In her first political bout, Vinesh Phogat rides on the anti-BJP sentiment across Haryana
MAKE IN MANIPUR
Home-made rockets and weapons from across the border are escalating the conflict
SAHEB LOSES STEAM
Coalition dynamics and poor electoral prospects continue to diminish Ajit Pawar's political stock