In a startling revelation, WhatsApp messaging app has confirmed that journalists and human rights activists in India were targeted by Israeli NSO Group who used spyware Pegasus to snoop on them.
The scary part: the operator can turn on the phone바카라s camera and microphone without the user knowing.
In a startling revelation, WhatsApp messaging app has confirmed that journalists and human rights activists in India were targeted by Israeli NSO Group who used spyware Pegasus to snoop on them.
According to a in The Indian Express, the revelation comes after a lawsuit was filed in a US federal court in which Facebook-owned WhatsApp alleged that NSO group spied on at least 14,00 WhatsApp users using spyware Pegasus.
바카라Indian journalists and human rights activists have been the target of surveillance and while I cannot reveal their identities and the exact number, I can say that it is not an insignificant number,바카라 The Indian Express quoted a WhatsApp spokesperson as saying.
WhatsApp said it contacted and alerted at least two dozen academics, lawyers, Dalit activists and journalists in India who had been under state-of-the-art surveillance for a two-week period until May 2019.
바카라We believe this attack targeted at least 100 members of civil society which is an unmistakable pattern of abuse. This number may grow higher as more victims come forward,바카라 it said.
The spyware requires a target to click on an "exploit link" which lets the operator penetrate the victim's security features on the phone and install Pegasus without the user knowing. Once spyware is installed, the operator can access the user's private data including passwords, contact lists and text messages. It can also access the live voice calls of the user.
The scary part: the operator can even turn on the phone바카라s camera and microphone to capture activity in the phone바카라s vicinity.
"In the latest vulnerability, the subject of the lawsuit, clicking the 바카라exploit link바카라 may also not be required and a missed video call on WhatsApp will have enabled opening up the phone, without a response from the target at all," the report said.
WhatsApp alleged that the NSO Group and Q Cyber Technologies violated the US and California laws as well as WhatsApp바카라s terms of service which prohibit such surveillance.
On its part, the NSO Group, in a statement, refuted the allegations and said: 바카라In the strongest possible terms, we dispute today바카라s allegations and will vigorously fight them. Our technology is not designed or licensed for use against human rights activists and journalists.바카라
Interestingly, the NSO Group said spyware Pegasus has been sold only to government agencies. 바카라We license our product only to vetted and legitimate government agencies.바카라
In September 2018, Canada-based cybersecurity group Citizen Lab said: 바카라We found suspected NSO Pegasus infections associated with 33 of the 36 Pegasus operators we identified in 45 countries바카라 including India.
While the messages on WhatsApp are encrypted and secure, sources in WhatsApp said a device is corrupted by a malware, it makes the device vulnerable to breach of privacy, "often endangering freedoms and sometimes lives".