#Adtran #Pegasus #Whatsapp

Is Pegasus over??



Pegasus spyware has taken the world by a storm. Developed by an Israeli cyber arms firm, NSO group, Pegasus can be secretly installed on mobile phones and other iOS and android devices without even a single user click. It snoops into text messages, tracks calls, passwords, location and even steals sensitive data from apps. Discovered in 2016, the malicious spyware used jailbreak to gain access to an iPhone. The trojan horse has been reported to be sold to the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states including India for surveillance purposes. In July 2021, it was revealed by human rights group Amnesty International that the project Pegasus has been used to tap phones of high profile targets including more than 300 journalists, politicians and media activists in India. This is not the first time such a revelation was made. Such attacks were reported even in 2018-19 when Whatsapp wajed a legal battle in the U.S against NSO alleging NSO had hacked into Whatsapp video calls in several devices.



NSO group claims it sells the technology to authorised governments but little is known if that is the case. Whether the same has been used for criminal and national security investigations alone or to commit corporate espionage or unauthorised surveillance is a pertinent question. If used unauthorizedly, or illegally , it would tantamount to invasion of privacy and a gross violation of human rights. Are we following the rule of law in India? Although many of these safeguards are built into the extant IT Act and rules, the Personal Data Protection bill is yet underway and there is little or no evidence to question invasion of privacy through hacking and/or arbitrary exercise of surveillance powers. Though Section 66 of IT Act, 2000 entitles a user to seek compensation for unauthorised access and copying of personal data and Section 43A entitles a user to sue a body corporate for fa.