Round The World
New Delhi, 22 July
2021
PEGASUS &
India
INTERNATIONAL
IRRITANTS
By Dr
D.K.Giri
(Prof.
International Politics, JIMMC)
The Pegasus
controversy has rocked Indian Parliament and shocked the country. People are
wondering why would a popularly elected government snoop on the Opposition with
the help of technology imported from a friendly country. Who is responsible?
The Opposition is finger pointing at the government who is denying it furiously
until it is proved. A mercurial and unstoppable Member of Parliament from the
ruling party has been threatening to expose whoever is involved in this
shameful act. Also, a friendly country like Israel is under scanner for
providing this tool. It raises question about transparency and decency in
democracy.
The BJP launched a
full-blown counter-offensive to deny the Opposition allegations on the Pegasus
controversy. Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said “disruptors and obstructors
will not be able to derail India’s development trajectory through their (Opposition’s)
conspiracies and the monsoon session will bear new fruits of progress”. He
added that the facts and sequence of events are for the entire nation to see. In
a statement, he declared, “Today, the monsoon session has started. In what
seemed like a perfect cue, late last evening we saw a report that has been
amplified by a few sections with only one aim — to do whatever is possible and
humiliate India at the world stage, peddle the same old narratives about our
nation and derail India’s development trajectory,” a few hours after Congress
sought his resignation over the controversy.
The fact of the
matter is, a spyware developed by an Israeli firm has been used for
surveillance against politicians, journalists, human rights activists and
business executives. Their smartphones were hacked to gather confidential
information. It must, however, be noted that the developers of the Pegasus
software, the NSO Group, originally had licenced it to governments to track
terrorists and criminals.
How does it
work?Pegasus is a spyware used to hack the handsets. The hackers can access the
user’s data including passwords, contacts, calendar events, text messages and
even live voice calls from messaging apps.
A global
investigative project published on 18 July claiming that mobile phones of at
least 300 Indians were targeted by the NSO group using its Pegasus spyware. Interestingly,
the list includes BJP Ministers, Opposition leaders, top lawyers, businessmen,
rights activists and journalists. Pegasus has a history of snooping. It made headlines
in 2019 when Facebook-owned WhatsApp confirmed that the spyware was used to
target around 1,400 users including journalists and human right activists in
India. WhatsApp claims to have fixed its software troubles that allowed Pegasus
to penetrate a mobile phone. But Pegasus found other techniques of spying on
individuals’ mobile phones
There are victims in
other countries too of Pegasus surveillance technology. An investigation led by
the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories had reported that
Pegasus spyware had been used to hack smartphones of journalists, government
officials and human rights activists.
Also, Amnesty International
released a forensic analysis of the alleged targeting that showed Amazon Web
Services was hosting NSO infrastructure. Amazon responded saying it had shut
down NSO accounts that were “confirmed to be supporting the reported hacking
activity”. The same Amnesty International reported that Pakistan Prime Minister
Imran Khan was the potential target for Pegasus. Amnesty also had identified a
US company,the DigitalOcean.
These reports raise
the scope of alleged abuses of which the NSO Group has been implicated since
2016. The consortium members have linked individuals, including over 600
politicians and government officials and 189 journalists to the more than 1,000
numbers across 50 countries put on the list.The largest share was in Mexico and
the Middle East, where Saudi Arabia is reported to be among NSO clients.
Back home, Prime
Minister Modiis accused of ‘treason’ over Pegasus spyware scandal while the Opposition
accuses him of compromising national security. The allegations and
counter-allegations are flying thick and fast after the revelations that dozens
of Indians were potential targets of snooping by Israeli-made spyware. The Indian
media reported that Modi’s main rival, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi,
was among dozens of Indian politicians, activists and government critics
identified as potential targets of the Pegasus spyware.
“Is spying on India’s
security forces, judiciary, cabinet ministers, Opposition leaders including
Rahul Gandhi, journalists and other activities through a foreign entity’s
spyware not treason and an inexcusable dilution of national security?” Congress
spokesman Randeep Surjewala roared at a press conference in New Delhi on
Monday.The Congress demanded an investigation into the roles of Modi and his
closest aide Amit Shah, in the scandal.“Our first demand is the immediate
sacking of Minister of Home and Internal Security Amit Shah and a probe into
the role of the Prime Minister in the matter,” Surjewala said.
The internet and
social media have been a bone of contention in India for a long time. The
government has been targeting Twitter and Facebook for being partisan,
attacking the government and giving more space and credence to the Opposition.
But now, the shoe seems to be on the other foot. The government is being
accused of using a foreign software to spy on people.
To recall the steps
recently taken by the Government of India, a Cyber Surakshit Bharat Initiative
was launched in 2018 with an aim to spread awareness about cybercrime and
building capacity for safety measures for Chief Information Security Officers
(CISOs) and frontline IT staff across all government departments. Second, the
launching of National Cyber security Coordination Centre (NCCC) in 2017. It was developed to scan internet
traffic and communication metadata (which are little snippets of information
hidden inside each communication) coming into the country to detect real-time
cyber threats. Third, Cyber Swachhta Kendra was set up in 2017. This platform
was introduced for internet users to clean their computers and devices by
wiping out viruses and malware. Fourth, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre
(I4C), which was recently inaugurated by the government. Fifth, the National
Cyber Crime Reporting Portal has also been launched pan India. Sixth, Computer
Emergency Response Team -India (CERT-IN). It is the nodal agency which deals
with cybersecurity threats like hacking and phishing.
Moreover, there have
also been legislations passed:Information Technology Act, 2000 and Personal
Data Protection Bill, 2019. The first one gives authority to the government to
monitor news and information that are harmful to the national interest. The
second gives the rights to the citizens to defend their data.
Despite all the laws
and systems in place, why would a government in any open democracy snoop on its
citizens. This shows insecurity and tendencies of totalitarianism. There must
be a coordinated international effort to check such anti-democratic acts.
Israel has dubious distinction of using surveillance and exporting its tools
and expertise. It must guard against the international outrage it may incur; it
already has on how it deals with Palestine. Be that as it may, the onus is on
government of India to punish the guilty, and if anyone in the government has
indulged in this misadventure, they must also be put in the dock. Let it not
pass likea storm in a tea cup. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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