WEAPON: Pegasus spyware, developed by an Israeli cyber security company, has the capacity to neutralise Prashant Kishor from helping Pawar to form an alliance against Narendra Modi, in the 2024 Parliamentary elections.

By Special Correspondents

The Pegasus spyware which can tap the mobile phones of all targets and even switch on their cameras and recorders remotely, is allegedly being used to spy on of ministers, politicians, activists and journalists, and also Rahul Gandhi, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, industrialist Anil Ambani and political strategist Prashant Kishor, who is planning to forge an anti-BJP alliance. In fact, the Prashant Kishor team has been detained in a Tripura hotel to prevent them from joining Pawar and his alliance.

PEGASUS is a spyware developed by a Israel cyber-security company, NSO Groups of Technologies Ltd. The company itself has listed Pegasus as a Weapon grade software, only to be used for protecting national security by authorised government agencies. Which means that the Pegasus spyware is not available to individuals however rich and can be exported laws only to government recognised security agencies. Of the 50,000 mobile numbers worldwide which have been allegedly targeted by the Pegasus, 136 odd numbers have been identified to be those of prominent Indian personalities. The targets range from senior members of the Modi cabinet, including ironically the Union Minister for Electronics and Information technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, senior serving and former Bureaucrats, like ex- Election Commissioner, Ashok Lavasa, Activists and senior media persons like Rahul Singh, could not have been tapped without the consent of the Modi government.

SUPER JAMES BOND

We need to understand why Pegasus is such a big threat. In the past there have been thousands of malware which have caused financial and physical damage to the targets. The unique feature of Pegasus is that it is like the tapping of your mobile phone by an external agency like the CBI or the NIA or even the cyber security cell of the Goa police. Once the mobile number of the target is tapped, either through the cable or through a WhatsApp message to which you have responded unwittingly, Pegasus can steal all your information. Even when your mobile camera or recorder is switched off, Pegasus can activate them and record everything you are doing including what you are doing in your bedroom. There is no place to hide and there is no privacy in your life, once you are trapped in the Pegasus web.

MISUSE FOR BLACKMAIL

WHICH is why Pegasus is so dangerous. Forget about keeping track of senior officials, journalists and activists, Pegasus can be used to blackmail senior officials and even ministers. For instance a telecom company like Reliance can blackmail the Union Minister for information and technology. There is what is called a honey trap where call girls are used to blackmail senior officials. Among the more recent victims is the Microsoft founder, Bill Gates. Milenda, his wife left him because he was alleged to have been involved with people peddling child porn like Raj Kundra. All governments have been tapping telephones of suspects for decades. But never has the tapping been so secretive and comprehensive that every single minor and major detail of your life becomes known to the person who has used Pegasus to spy on you. The company which has developed the software itself has made it clear that Pegasus is not like covid-19 and cannot be used against the whole community or a country. The person who has been given access to Pegasus has to individually tap the target he wants to maintain a surveillance on. Though the Central government has denied that it has imported the Pegasus software and is spying even on its own colleagues in the cabinet, the fact remains that the investigation carried out by an International media Consortium of sixteen leading publications worldwide, including the online Wire in India, have found 50,000 mobile numbers worldwide which have been victims of the Pegasus software. Ranging from the President of France and his wife to the Sheikhs of the United Arab Emirates. Significantly, Prashant Kishore who is trying to put together the Pawar Rashtriya Manch, is among the targets of Pegasus.

GLOBAL MEDIA PROBE

The story was first revealed by the leading French publication Le Monde. The group includes highly reputed publications like the Guardian in UK and the Washington post in the United States and the Online Wire in India edited by Siddharth Vardharajan. Who is also among the targets of Pegasus. This publications in turn traced the telephone numbers which were trapped in their respective countries. Being a members of the investigative group, Wire identified the identity of the 136 Indian victims of Pegasus. We have published a partial list of the most important targets. Which dramatizes the range of the operation. The names that have been identified are so widespread that it can only be of interest to the ruling party in power. In any case the software group which developed it, has made it clear that it has only sold the software to official government agencies. The 50,000 numbers identified by the consortium of media organisations is only a sample of the number of telephones of top people tapped. The government or agency which has got Pegasus can spy on anyone it wants to. Significantly in the case of the Indian list all the activist who have been arrested in the Elgar Parishad case in which Fr Stan Swamy had been implicated are included in the mobiles tapped. In the case of Goa, the numbers tapped include that of the Goa Institute of Management (GIM) Professor, Anand Teltumbde.

AMIT SHAH STRATERGY?

We are inclined to believe that Amit Shah, the Home Minister, with or without the knowledge of Narendra Modi is involved in importing the deadly software. This is because by default nether the names of the Modi or Amit Shah or ministers close to them like Nitin Ghadkari or senior RSS leaders figure in the list. On the other hand the names of Rahul Gandhi and several opposition leaders are part of the India Pegasus.
It is not just individuals in the oppositions. All the activist organisations whether it is Elgar Parishad or Kashmir Militants or Naga leaders are part of the list. Selectively only journalists, who have been critical of the government are part of the list. Similarly while Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, do not figure in the list of target, the younger Ambani is part of the list. The fact that the French President Emmanuel Macroni and senior officials figured in the list may be because of the on-going enquiry into the Rafael aircraft scam. The only person who could be interested in the kind of information that is being sought and the people targeted clearly points fingers at Amit Shah.
If you are a journalist or a senior official or an activist or even if you are an ordinary individual be careful with your smartphone. The smartphone that you have is much smarter then you. You may lock your Facebook and WhatsApp accounts. You may install cyber security apps to prevent people from recording your conversation or revealing your location and where and whom you have visited. Do not leave your smart phone unattended. Now I understand why my more computer savvy friends and colleagues refuse to even let me touch their phone. They are obviously aware of how vulnerable they are. But nobody even in their wildest imagination could have guess that a new software Pegasus can without your switching on the camera or recorder on your phone can do it remotely and record you masti in your bedroom with your wife or with somebody else wife.