Why is everyone in India googling Pegasus?

NEW DELHI: The Cyber & Information Security (CIS) division of Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday said that there was no information on any order being given to purchase Israeli sypware Pegasus, implying that this arm of the ministry had not bought the software which is at the centre of an alleged snooping row globally, and in India.In reply to an RTI query by one Saurav Das, SK Bhalla, director of the CIS-II and CPIO under MHA said, “In this regard, it is informed that no information is available with the undersigned CPIO”.The reply by the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) added that an appeal can be filed against the response in 30 daysIn the RTI query, Das had sought to know if the Government had bought or given a purchase order for Pegasus, a spyware developed by Israel’s NSO Group.“If so, by which date. If not, whether there was any proposal for the same at any point of time…whether the Government of India is considering the purchase of such a spyware,” the query added.The RTI query and the MHA’s reply came amidst a global uproar on privacy after Facebook-owned messaging platform said Indian journalists and human right activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using Pegasus.WhatsApp said it was suing NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm, that is reportedly behind the technology that helped unnamed entities' spies to hack into phones of roughly 1,400 users.These users span across four continents and included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials.However, it did not say on whose behest the phones of journalists and activists across the world were targeted.The IT ministry has meanwhile sought a detailed response from WhatsApp on the issue and asked the platform to submit its reply by November 4.WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion users globally, of which India alone accounts for about 400 million.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2C0wELq