Pegasus spyware used against journalist Siddharth Varadarajan, OCCRP South Asia chief: Amnesty

News website The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan and South Asia Editor of the Organised Crime and Corruption Report Project Anand Mangnale were among journalists recently targeted using the Pegasus spyware, an investigation by human rights organisation Amnesty International and The Washington Post alleged.

The Pegasus spyware is licensed to governments around the world by the Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO Group. The company insists that it sells its software only to “vetted governments” with good human rights records and that it is intended to target criminals.

However, in July 2021, a consortium of international media organisations had reported that was Pegasus being used by governments around the world to snoop on critics.

The exposés had shown that the military-grade spyware had been used for unauthorised surveillance of Opposition leaders, activists and journalists, including Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Vardarajan and another founding editor of The Wire, MK Venu. In India, The Wire had reported that 161 Indians were spied on using Pegasus. The Indian government had denied the allegations.

On Thursday, Amnesty International claimed that it first observed indications of the renewed use of Pegasus on individuals in India during a regular technical monitoring exercise in June 2023.

This was after the Financial Times reported in March, quoting unidentified persons, that the Indian government was looking for spyware that has a “lower profile” than Pegasus....

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