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A three-member technical team led by the former Supreme Court justice would conduct a “thorough investigation” into the situation. Experts in cyber security, digital forensics, networks, and hardware make up this committee.
Justice Raju Varadarajulu Raveendran began his legal career in March 1968 and was nominated to the Karnataka High Court as a permanent judge in February 1993. In July 2004, he was named Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
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]]>The Supreme Court advised petitioners not to hold a parallel debate on social issues while adjourning the session. The Supreme Court was considering a slew of petitions, including one from the Editors Guild of India, which sought an independent investigation into the alleged Pegasus snooping case.
According to an international media consortium, over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on a list of potential targets for monitoring using Israeli firm NSO’s Pegasus spyware.
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]]>Following the conference, she told media that a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the Pegasus conspiracy surrounding opposition leaders, two union ministers, and 40 journalists made public as possible victims of spying utilizing Israeli Pegasus spyware purchased only to government agencies should be launched.
The charges have effectively halted parliament’s monsoon sitting, with the opposing looking for answers from Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
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]]>The Cabinet has approved the appointment of a commission of inquiry comprising former Supreme Court judge, Justice (retd) MB Lokur and retired chief justice of Calcutta high court, Justice (retd) Jyotirmay Bhattacharya in exercise of the power conferred by section 3 of the Commission of Enquiry Act, 1952 in the matter of widely reported illegal hacking, monitoring, putting under surveillance, tracking, recording etc of mobile phones of various persons in the state of West Bengal,” Banerjee said while addressing media at the state secretariat before leaving for Delhi.
The Pegasus row erupted last Sunday before the beginning of the current monsoon session of Parliament after an international investigative consortium reported that India was among the countries that used Israeli company NSO Group’s phone hacking software, Pegasus, to potentially target politicians, journalists and activists.
Over the past one week, we thought the Centre would initiate a probe, monitored by the apex court on which the citizens have faith. But when we saw that the Centre was apathetical, we decided to appoint a commission of inquiry comprising two retired judges. West Bengal is the first state to do this. They would look into how hacking was being done and who were the persons behind it,” she said.
“If someone is asleep, he must be awakened. This is a small step. Hopefully this would awaken others. This is has been approved in the cabinet today. We would now request the two retired judged to join and start the inquiry,” she added.
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]]>In the early years of 2000s, it was Tehelka and the Nira Radia tapes that brought the pitfalls of technology to the fore in uncovering scams. The recent Pegasus spyware debacle makes all those other surveillance incidents appear to be crude capers of amateurs. The spyware that was developed by Israel based NSO is a hacking software that is so expensive it cannot be afforded by all. The company itself claims that they sell the license to use it only to “vetted government” bodies. Yet, they were infamously in news in 2019 for compromising WhatsApp users’ personal data. They are in news in the last four days for hacking into and snooping the data base of Indian journalists, three major opposition leaders and two serving ministers in the current government, a few human rights activists, and several businesspersons.
What is Pegasus?
Pegasus is a malicious spyware that hacks computers and smartphones to gather data and sells it to a third party. It hacks into user’s device unbeknownst to them and leaves no trace once it has entered or exits. The spyware is the most sophisticated hacking tool that is installed by hackers mainly in Android devices or iPhones using software loopholes or bugs. It can be manipulated to delete call log entry, messages, calendar records, breakthrough WhatsApp’s encrypted chats and even traces of its own entry point from the device, leaving the device user clueless of its presence. The Pegasus software is awfully expensive and can only be afforded for targeted surveillance. Hence, unless one is under the scanner of government-approved intelligence agencies, they are likely to not fall in its net. However, this idea does not relieve one of the threats of the privacy breach. In 2019, WhatsApp had sued NSO alleging they were behind a slew of cyber-attacks on 1400 mobile phone users. Of this number, 121 users were from India and largely included activists, scholars, and journalists.
The Wire news portal in India, international publications such as Washington Post, The Guardian and Le Monde who are media partners to an investigation conducted by Paris-based media non-profit organization Forbidden Stories and rights group Amnesty International into a leaked list of more than 50,000 phone numbers from across the world that are believed to have been the target of surveillance through Pegasus software of Israeli surveillance company NSO Group claim that there were clear signs of the spyware in 37 phones, of which 10 are Indian.
The Pegasus impact on India
In India, the recent alleged targets of the Pegasus spyware are mostly voices of dissent to the government – be it opposition members or activists. The government is vehemently denying ordering or presence of such surveillance. Yet, there is demand for passage of Data Protection Bill that is relevant to the current times and will be a big step towards restoring the ordinary citizen’s faith in the system and in securing their fundamental right to privacy. It is still unclear as to who ordered the hack or how many phones have actually been hacked, but there is a major crisis looming in front of the opposition as important agendas may have to take a backseat during the upcoming winter session till they address the Pegasus matter. India allows phone tapping “in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India”. However, there is no clear definition as to what the process is, or authorizations will be required. Back in 2019, questions were raised in the parliament on where the Pegasus spyware came to India from and why were people “fighting against the government” targeted? It is difficult to believe the government has no hand in the snooping by Pegasus considering the people being targeted are mainly those opposing their policies.
Indian business fraternity is stunned, as several businesspeople are part of the Pegasus row. It will broaden the gap between government and corporate, which is not good for a developing nation. Indian corporates are already suffering due to post-pandemic business issues like inflation and labour shortage. Pegasus is a further addition of discomfort for them.
India’s laws on Phone tapping
In India, 10 agencies are authorized to legally wiretap, and the Intelligence Bureau is the largest and most powerful intelligence service with wide-ranging powers. They conduct surveillance on terrorists and do background checks of candidates for high offices like judges. They are also in charge of surveillance of political activities and elections.
With the recent technologies that are aiding faster information transmission and resulting in faster actions, surveillance has also had to adopt new techniques. Even large tech companies such as Google and Facebook have also come under scanner for data and privacy breach and left many unanswered questions on how they will ensure their users do not feel their privacy is unviolated.
The former federal minster and MP Manish Tewari had unsuccessfully tried to introduce a private member’s bill in Parliament to regulate the power of India’s intelligence agencies. He plans to reintroduce the bill in the ongoing parliamentary session. In any case, actions must be taken to formulate citizen-friendly policies to regulate agencies who are snooping on us.
How to prevent phone tapping
Gradually we have become highly dependent on mobile phones and other digital devices. We want to be connected to the Internet everywhere, but it is extremely dangerous for the digital security. Avoid using free Wi-Fi and public internet unnecessarily. Switch off the phone when you’re not using it. Sometimes if your phone has spyware software, it won’t switch off quickly. Keep your blue tooth disabled. If it is necessary to use blue tooth disable it immediately after its use. You can use anti- spyware software to prevent phone tapping. You can contact your telecom service providers and ask them to track down potential spies.
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