The pegasus project report, which came out recently as a part of a global investigation, has created many waves at the Indian parliament.
The investigative report has revealed that Israeli company NSO group’s Pegasus spyware targeted over 300 mobile phone numbers in India, including two serving ministers in the current government, three opposition leaders, one constitutional authority, several journalists, and business persons.
What is pegasus?
Pegasus is Spyware, it infiltrates your phone or any other device using a vector.
The vector carries the Spyware inside the device; some even claim that the Spyware can be transferred to your device with something as simple as a missed call.
It could also be a WhatsApp, it could be via messaging, it could be via mail. Then it installs itself into the device and starts beaming out your data or what you are doing – your activity, your internet behavior, all of that gets transferred to the attacker. The attacker is likely to get more control over the phone than the user itself once it has been installed.
According to the latest Information, a parliamentary committee on Information Technology will take up this issue later this month. This committee, led by Shashi Tharoor, will hold a meeting on the 28th of July. Officials from the Ministry of Information and technology and the home ministry are likely to be present in the forum.
Mr. Shashi Tharoor, in his official statement given to the press, elaborated a need to investigate the snooping allegations. However, the Indian government has rejected all these allegations.
Why was this committee formed?
The opposition has accused the government of snooping on political leaders, journalists, judges, and activists using Spyware bought at a high cost from an Israeli company.
The company has claimed that such Spyware is only sold to the governments of different countries for security reasons to help them with their fight against terrorism.
This claim made by the company made the opposition suspect the government’s involvement in this matter. Hence, to analyze the truthfulness against these allegations, the parliamentary committee has been formed. The findings of this committee will be highly crucial for the future of Indian IT law and the right to the privacy act.
