DOCUMENT REVEALS PEGASUS SPYWARE TARGETED 100 WHATSAPP USERS IN INDIA

Sun 13 April 2025:

A new legal document submitted in a United States court has revealed that at least 100 individuals in India were targeted by the Pegasus spyware during a WhatsApp hacking operation in 2019.

This figure places India as the second-most affected country globally, as per a report by Medianama published on Thursday.

The document, filed on April 4, forms part of the evidence in an ongoing lawsuit that WhatsApp has filed against the Israeli cyber intelligence firm NSO Group Technologies, which is responsible for developing Pegasus.

Since 2019, WhatsApp, a messaging platform owned by the US-based tech giant Meta, has been engaged in a legal tussle with NSO Group. The platform alleges that the Israeli company deployed its spyware against approximately 1,400 WhatsApp users during a two-week period spanning April to May 2019.

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https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

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A ruling by a US District Court on December 20 held the NSO Group accountable for unauthorized surveillance conducted via its Pegasus spyware on 1,400 WhatsApp accounts in 2019. The court has stated that the amount of compensation the company owes WhatsApp will be decided in a separate hearing.

During the proceedings, WhatsApp presented data showing the geographical breakdown of Pegasus targets during the two-week hacking window. According to the data, the targeted users were distributed across 51 different countries.

Mexico topped the list with 456 individuals reportedly targeted. India followed with 100, while Bahrain accounted for 82, Morocco 69, Pakistan 58, Indonesia 54, and Israel 51. Other nations affected include Turkey (26), Spain (21), France (7), the United States (1), and both Canada and the United Kingdom (2 each).

However, the identities of those who were targeted in the 2019 hacking operation remain undisclosed.

In response to the latest revelations, Israeli tech publication CTech quoted the NSO Group defending itself by saying the list was “an interpretation of information taken out of context, alongside half-truths and one-sided claims by Meta — claims that have already been refuted and will continue to be refuted” through legal channels.

The company also added, “For example, the fact that the phone of a suspect in a crime or terrorist activity is identified in a certain territory does not indicate the identity of the customer.”

Pegasus, once installed on a device, is capable of accessing call logs, emails, photos, encrypted chats, location data, and other personal information — all without the user’s awareness.

In July 2021, a collaborative investigation involving 17 global media houses and Amnesty International disclosed that Pegasus had been used for illegal surveillance on journalists, politicians, and activists across the world, including in India.

The NSO Group licenses Pegasus exclusively to governments, claiming it only does so with “vetted governments” that have good human rights track records and that the software is meant strictly for tracking criminals.

In India, The Wire reported that prominent individuals such as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Singh Patel, businessman Anil Ambani, ex-CBI Director Alok Verma, and human rights defenders including the late SAR Geelani were among the potential targets of Pegasus.

Despite the widespread concern, the Indian government has consistently denied these allegations. In July 2021, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw addressed Parliament, stating that “illegal surveillance is not possible in India.”

Subsequent to the media reports, the Supreme Court constituted an independent expert committee to investigate the matter. In August 2022, the apex court disclosed that of the 29 phones submitted for analysis, malware was detected in five. However, it could not be conclusively identified as Pegasus.

Importantly, the court also pointed out that the expert panel had noted the Union government’s lack of cooperation during the inquiry process.

In November 2021, the United States government blacklisted NSO Group, stating that the firm had acted “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US.”

In December 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that NSO Group had violated U.S. laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act. The court also found that NSO Group had breached WhatsApp’s terms of service.

As part of the ongoing litigation, Judge Hamilton ordered NSO Group to hand over the Pegasus code to WhatsApp by March 2024, highlighting the company’s repeated failure to comply with court orders. She also noted that NSO Group made its spyware code available only to an Israeli citizen within Israel, despite the case being heard in a U.S. court, describing this as “simply impracticable.”

This article originally published in Maktoob Media Click here