Congress calls for SC inquiry into Pegasus attack after US district court verdict
The district court on Friday held Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO Group, which owns Pegasus, liable for the illegal surveillance of 1,400 WhatsApp users.
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
The Congress on Sunday said that the verdict in the Pegasus spyware case in the United States proved that 300 Indian users of the messaging application WhatsApp were targeted in 2019, and urged the Supreme Court to conduct a “further inquiry” into the matter.
This came after a district court in the United States on Friday held Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO Group, which owns Pegasus, liable for the unauthorised surveillance of 1,400 WhatsApp users using the spyware.
WhatsApp, owned by United States-based technology company Meta, has been locked in a legal battle with the Israeli firm since 2019. The messaging platform has alleged that the NSO Group’s spyware had been used against 1,400 users of the application over a two-week period in April and May 2019.
According to reports, over 300 of these users were from India, including journalists, ministers and Opposition leaders, among others.
When added to an electronic device, the Pegasus software can generally gain access to phone calls, emails, location information, encrypted messages and photographs without the user’s knowledge.
The spyware is licensed to governments around the world by the NSO Group. The cyber intelligence company says it sells the Pegasus software only to “vetted governments” with good human rights records and that it is intended to target criminals.
In a post on X, Congress...
