Israeli spyware used to target Indian journalists, human rights activists: WhatsApp

October 31, 2019 12:38

Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Thursday said Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli sypware Peagasus.

WhatsApp said it was suing the 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.

Refusing to divulge identities or the exact number of those targeted in India, WhatsApp said it had in May stopped a highly sophisticated cyber attack that exploited its video calling system to send malware to its users. The mobile messaging giant said it had sent a special WhatsApp message to approximately 1,400 users that it has "reason to believe were impacted by this attack to directly inform them about what happened".

While the messaging giant didn't disclose the details or the number of people affected in India, a WhatsApp spokesperson said: "Indian users were among those contacted by us this week". WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion users globally, of which India alone accounts for about 400 million.

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