- By Talib Khan
- Thu, 31 Oct 2019 01:32 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Jagran Technology Desk: In a shocking revelation, the Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Thursday revealed that around 1,400 WhatsApp users, including Indian journalists and human rights activists, were among those who were spied by the unnamed organisations using an Israeli spyware Pegasus.
The messaging app also said that they have sued the NSO group, an Israeli surveillance firm, who is reportedly behind providing the technology to the spies to hack into phones of the users attacked.
Among the 1,400 users were diplomats, political dissidents, journalists, and senior government officials and spanned across four continents. However, WhatsApp did not disclose on whose orders these people were targeted.
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The Facebook-owned messaging platform also refused to give the exact numbers and names of those targeted in India but said that it had stopped a highly sophisticated cyberattack in May, that misused its video calling system to send malware to users.
The company also sent a customised message to those 1,400 users that it has "reason to believe were impacted by this attack to directly inform them about what happened"as reported by News 18.
WhatsApp had filed a lawsuit in a federal court in California on Tuesday against the NSO group and alleges that the group had developed the spyware to infect approximately 1,400 users globally, including some in India, with dubious software intending to steal valuable information from the users of WhatsApp.
Meanwhile, the NSO has denied the allegations of WhatsApp and said, the sole purpose of NSO is to provide technology to licensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime", as reported by News18.
WhatsApp said it "believes the attack targeted at least 100 members of civil society... this number may grow higher as more victims come forward".
WhatsApp Head Will Cathcart said these victims include human rights defenders, journalists and other members of the civil society across the world. "Tools that enable surveillance into our private lives are being abused, and the proliferation of this technology into the hands of irresponsible companies and governments puts us all at risk," Cathcart said in an op-ed in The Washington Post.
He also notified that WhatsApp is committed to the fundamental right to privacy of the people and is working to stay ahead of the violators. A cybersecurity research lab at the University of Toronto, Citizen Lab, had helped WhatsApp in knowing the hacking of the users.
