Political controversy continues over the use of Pegasus spy software made by the Israeli company NSO by various governments, including India, so that protesters took to the streets demanding the resignation of their governments, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to a report by 17 major international media outlets, UNSAW is accused of selling Pegasus spy software to the governments of Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India and the UAE and these governments hacked mobile phones of human rights defenders by this software. According to the report, the telephone numbers of French President Emmanuel Macron and top government ministers were on a list of thousands targeted by Pegasus software. Following the publication of this report, Emmanuel Macron called the Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and asked him to explain.
US officials announced last week that Israeli technology company NSO, the maker of Pegasus spy software, was sharing its data with the Zionist regime.
An unnamed U.S. official said: Undoubtedly, NSO shares sensitive national security information with the Israeli government.
He added: Governments around the world believe that NSO is working with the Government of Israel.
How does Pegasus software work?
The Israeli spy program “Pegasus” was first revealed in 2016; The cell phone of “Emirati activist” Ahmad Mansour was hacked by a series of highly advanced spyware programs, after which Mansour was arrested and is still imprisoned.
The most prominent feature of this program is the “ZERO click” technology or hacking the phone without the user contacting the suspicious link, and it is the most advanced technique for hacking the phone and spying on its users without their knowledge, because it is very expensive and costs more than three million dollars.
The Zionist company has announced that the main purpose of the program is to fight what is called terrorism, but the victims targeted – according to British security expert Jake Moore – were human rights activists, journalists, politicians and some wealthy people, so whoever is behind the program , Targets specific people.
The threat also lies in its ability to infiltrate the most precise privacy, as Facebook explicitly accused the Israeli company of stealing and hacking its popular WhatsApp app and spying on hundreds of specific users.
In 2019, the software infiltrated WhatsApp social media and spied on millions of users of the program, made headlines in the media.
Controversy in Hungary
On July 26, nearly a thousand people, organized by opposition political parties, demonstrated in front of the House of Terror Museum in Budapest. The protests came in response to revelations by the Hungarian government about the use of Pegasus spy software to monitor the activities of journalists, businessmen and politicians.
The House of Terror Museum is housed in a building where people were interrogated, tortured, or killed, and houses exhibits of victims of fascist and Stalinist regimes in the twentieth century.
The protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Victor Urban and Hungarian Justice Minister Judith Varga. Under Hungarian law, Varga can order secret surveillance without a court order.
While the leaked information contained the telephone numbers of about 300 Hungarian citizens, the analysis showed that Pegasus was also used to hack into the smartphones of at least five Hungarian journalists.
Hungarian authorities have not denied or confirmed the reports, but have said that covert surveillance is carried out in accordance with Hungarian law.
Hungarian Minister of Justice Varga said in Brussels without confirming the use of Pegasus by the Hungarian government: “Let us think wisely, every country needs such tools! Problem-solving is futile.
In addition, the head of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office told the press that the country’s cabinet had not discussed the matter and “had no plans to investigate the espionage allegations.”
Controversy in India
In India, the use of Pegasus spy software by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has sparked political controversy. In this country, this Zionist software has been used to spy on almost a thousand people, including journalists, activists, lawyers and academics. Among the cell phone numbers on the leaked list are two phones used by opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and five close friends.
Opposition groups called for a full parliamentary session on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. Meanwhile, the Indian government, while not denying the use of Pegasus tools for espionage, has accused critics of spreading “false news”, “undermining Indian democracy” and “discrediting India”.
The identities of the targets leave no doubt as to the motive for the espionage. “The Economist” provided information on the individuals wanted to spy: The list includes the telephone numbers of 40 journalists who have been critical of Mr Modi’s government. Some of the issues belong to Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress, and his personal friends. The rest belong to political advisers. The list also includes the telephone numbers of a former senior election official and members of his family who criticized Narendra Modi for violating the law in the 2019 general election. In the Indian government, the contact numbers of the two ministers and security and defense officials are also on the disclosed list.
In response to the criticism, the Indian government has stated that previous governments have also spied on their opponents in various ways.
In 2019, WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook, announced that its popular software had been attacked by the Pegasus virus made by a Zionist company, NSO, and that the virus was the subject of conversations between social activists and Indian journalists have been spied on.
With 400 million users per month, India is the largest marketplace for WhatsApp software.
While the Zionist group NSO continues to shy away from taking responsibility for the use of its spy software by governments around the world, the company has disclosed a list of 60 accounts belonging to 40 or more government customer, refused.
However, Edward Snowden, a US intelligence whistleblower and former Russian intelligence official based in Russia, said in a statement that the Israeli company NSO claimed that it was impossible to hack US President Joe Biden’s cell phone, unlike his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
He emphasized in this regard: The code that hacks Emmanuel Macron’s “iPhone” will work the same way on Joe Biden’s “iPhone”.