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India: Damning new forensic investigation reveals repeated use of Pegasus spyware to target high-profile journalists.
Amnesty International, in partnership with The Washington Post, has unearthed shocking new details about the continued use of NSO Group’s highly invasive spyware Pegasus to target prominent journalists in India, including one who had previously been a victim of an attack using the same spyware.
Our latest findings show that increasingly, journalists in India face the threat of unlawful surveillance simply for doing their jobs, alongside other tools of repression including imprisonment under draconian laws, smear campaigns, harassment, and intimidation Head of Amnesty International’s Security Lab Donncha Γ Cearbhaill.
Forensic investigations by Amnesty International’s Security Lab confirmed that Founding Editor of The Wire Siddharth Varadarajan and the South Asia Editor at The Organised Crime and Corruption Report Project (OCCRP) Anand Mangnale were among the journalists recently targeted with Pegasus spyware on their iPhones, with the latest identified case occurring in October 2023.
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“Our latest findings show that increasingly, journalists in India face the threat of unlawful surveillance simply for doing their jobs, alongside other tools of repression including imprisonment under draconian laws, smear campaigns, harassment, and intimidation,” said Head of Amnesty International’s Security Lab Donncha Γ Cearbhaill.
“Despite repeated revelations, there has been a shameful lack of accountability about the use of Pegasus spyware in India which only intensifies the sense of impunity over these human rights violations.”
Forensic evidence reveals Pegasus activity Amnesty International’s Security Lab first observed indications of renewed Pegasus spyware threats towards individuals in India during a regular technical monitoring exercise in June 2023, a number of months after media reported that the Indian government was seeking to procure a new commercial spyware system.
In October 2023, Apple issued a new round of threat notifications globally to iPhone users who may have been targeted by “state-sponsored attackers.”
More than 20 journalists and opposition politicians in India were reported to have received the notifications.
As a result, Amnesty International’s Security Lab undertook a forensic analysis on the phones of individuals around the world who received these notifications, including Siddharth Varadarajan and Anand Mangnale.
It found traces of Pegasus spyware activity on devices owned by both Indian journalists. The Security Lab recovered evidence from Anand Mangnale’s device of a zero-click exploit which was sent to his phone over iMessage on 23 August 2023 and designed to covertly install the Pegasus spyware.
The phone was running iOS 16.6, the latest version available at the time. A zero-click exploit refers to malicious software that enables spyware to be installed on a device without requiring any user action from the target, such as clicking on a link. More
