Contact numbers of over 40 Indian journalists featured on a leaked list of potential targets for surveillance. Forensic tests have confirmed that some of them were successfully spied upon by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware, The Wire reports.
The data includes telephone numbers of journalists across large media houses like the Hindustan Times, including executive editor Shishir Gupta, India Today, Network18, The Hindu and Indian Express.
France-based media non-profit, Forbidden Stories, and Amnesty International first accessed this leaked list which was shared with The Wire and 15 other news organisations worldwide as part of a collaborative investigation called the Pegasus Project.
The mere appearance of a phone number does not indicate whether a device was infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack. However, the Pegasus Project analysed this list believes the data is indicative of potential targets identified in advance of possible surveillance attempts.
Independent digital forensic analysis conducted on 10 Indian phones whose numbers were present in the data showed signs of either an attempted or successful Pegasus hack.
Journos involved in high level investigations targeted
The Wire’s founding editors, diplomatic editor and two regular contributors, including Rohini Singh appear on the list. Singh’s number features following the publication of her back-to-back reports on Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah, and Nikhil Merchant, a businessman who is close to Narendra Modi. She was also investigating dealings of minister Piyush Goyal, with businessman Ajay Piramal.
Former Indian Express journalist Sushant Singh was included in mid-2018, at a time when he was investigating the controversial Rafale aircraft deal. Digital forensics conducted on his current phone showed signs of Pegasus infection earlier this year
Most targets Delhi-based scribes
The NSO Group who created the spyware has denied that the leaked list was linked in any way to the functioning of its software. In response to the Pegasus Project, NSO has said that people in the list were not targeted by the governments using Pegasus but were maybe a part of a larger list of numbers that other customers of theirs used for different purposes.
A sizable number of people who appear in the records are based out of New Delhi.
Centre dismisses illegal use of software
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology alleged on Sunday that reports of Israel-made software, Pegasus, was used to target at least 40 Indian journalists was not only " bereft of facts but also founded in pre-conceived conclusions"
"The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever," the government said in its response to the media houses investigating the matter.
The Pegasus saga
A senior journalist alerted Twitteratti to this coming “expose” late on Saturday night and then followed it up with a series of tweets. On Sunday morning, an MP joined in too.
Veteran journalist Sheela Bhatt tweeted on Saturday night that the report "is a really big story" and involved collaboration of media organisations, including from India. She claimed the report would be published at "11.59pm" on Sunday.
Later, she clarified that the report would be published in the news poral Wire and 9.00pm India time.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy tweeted that Pegasus could have also been used to tap the phones of ministers in the Narendra Modi government, RSS leaders and SC justices. Swamy claimed there was a rumour that western media outlets would publish a report exposing this.
Swamy tweeted, "Strong rumour that this evening IST, Washington Post & London Guardian are publishing a report exposing the hiring of an Israeli firm Pegasus, for tapping phones of Modi’s Cabinet Ministers, RSS leaders, SC judges, & journalists. If I get this confirmed I will publish the list.”
Derek O'Brien, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP, responded to Swamy's tweet. He claimed that the phone tapping also targeted "many members of the opposition".
Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram issued a cryptic tweet to refer to the controversy. "A little birdie tells me that Pegasus is going to be explosive," he tweeted.
Pegasus, an Israeli-made spyware, was in the news in the later months of 2019. In October 2019, WhatsApp said it was suing NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm that was behind the technology for Pegasus, which was used by spies to hack into phones of roughly 1,400 users around the world.
These users were spread across four continents and included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials. Indian users were among those who were targeted. Then, The Indian Express reported that "two dozen academics, lawyers, Dalit activists and journalists in India" had been snooped on using Pegasus.
Now, more than 18 months after the initial expose, Pegasus seems set to be back in the news.
When the Pegasus allegations surfaced in 2019, then Union minister for information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad had told Parliament that no "unauthorised" use of Pegasus had been made in India by government agencies.
