India targeting high-profile journalists with Pegasus spyware: Amnesty

The Indian government has been allegedly using Pegasus spyware to target prominent journalists, as per a joint investigation released on Thursday by Amnesty International and The Washington Post.

Pegasus software, developed by the Israeli company NSO Group and distributed to governments worldwide, allows users to read and write on a phone, browse through images, record calls, monitor locations, and even record the owner using the camera.

According to Amnesty International, the most recent case of the malware on the iPhones of journalists Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire and Anand Mangnale of The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project was discovered in October.


"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 Donncha O Cearbhaill, Head of Amnesty International's Security Lab.



Representing the Indian government MeitY's Rajeev Chandrasekhar on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) said that the response has been consistent. "My response to this incident has been consistent and clear from the incident - That it is for Apple to explain if their devices are vulnerable and what triggered these notifications. Apple was asked to join the enquiry with CERT-In and meetings have been held and enquiry is ongoing," he said.

Last month, Indian media reported that the nation's cyber security unit CERT-In was looking into claims made by opposition lawmakers that they were subjected to attempted phone tapping. These politicians had received alerts from Apple about "state-sponsored attackers" on their iPhones.

Minister of communication and technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, stated that the government was "concerned" about the grievances.