Senior government officials in several countries allied with the United States were targeted with the Pegasus hacking software that uses messaging service WhatsApp to take over users’ phones, a report by Reuters suggests.
Quoting sources familiar with WhatsApp’s internal investigation into the breach, the report says a “significant” portion of known victims are high-profile government and military officials spread across at least 20 countries, many of which are allies of the US.
The report does not mention which countries the officials belong to and states that it is unclear who used the software to hack officials’ phones.
Victims of the attack are from the United States, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Mexico, Pakistan and India, it says.
WhatsApp is suing Israeli spyware developer NSO Group for using its spyware Pegasus to exploit a vulnerability in WhatsApp that allowed attackers to plant it in users’ phones just by ringing the target’s device.
Since Tuesday, The Quint has been able to confirm 20 Indian citizens who were targeted by Pegasus spyware.
Those snooped upon are lawyers associated with the Elgar Parishad and Bhima Koregaon case, anti-caste activists and journalists reporting on defence.
The IT Ministry on Thursday, 31 October, sought a detailed response from WhatsApp on the attack by 4 November.
The NSO Group, which makes the spyware used to target at least two dozen Indian citizens, has told The Quint that it “is not able to disclose who is or is not a client” but at the same time reiterated that its software products are sold to no entity but governments.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
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