The authorities deny any involvement, but an investigation by Amnesty International does not speak in their favor.
Apple has warned Indian journalists and opposition politicians about attempts by government hackers to hack their iPhones. In response, representatives of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched an investigation into the security of Apple devices and expressed doubts about the company's internal security algorithms. This is reported by The Washington Post, citing information from sources.
Senior officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration have demanded that Apple representatives in India mitigate the political impact of the warnings, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. An Apple security expert from abroad was also called in for a meeting in New Delhi, where he was supposed to offer alternative explanations for the warnings to users.
The events raised concerns at Apple's Cupertino headquarters and highlighted how even powerful tech companies can face pressure from the active leadership of one of the world's most populous countries and a key technology market.
Among the 20 people who received warnings from Apple were journalists and politicians critical of Modi and his ally, businessman Gautam Adani. Also among those who received notifications was a representative of the largest opposition party. Two journalists, Anand Mangnale and Ravi Nair of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), were notified that their phones had been hacked.
On August 31, the OCCRP project published a joint investigation with the British news agencies Financial Times and Guardian, which reported that Adani's long-time associates funneled funds through offshore shell companies into publicly traded Adani shares. Adani denied the allegations contained in the story, but the report spurred calls for a parliamentary inquiry into alleged stock manipulation and renewed criticism that the Modi government failed to regulate Adani's dealings out of loyalty to the businessman.
According to an Amnesty analysis, hours after OCCRP requested Adani's comment a week before the story was published, unknown hackers used the Blastpass exploit to break into Mangnale's phone and install Pegasus. Amnesty said it found no evidence of Anand's phone being hacked, which is not uncommon after sophisticated attacks.
Representatives of the Adani Group and the BJP deny involvement in the hacking attacks and call for evidence to be provided for an investigation by the Indian government. But earlier, the journalists ' association Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International found that the phones of Indian journalists and political figures were infected with Pegasus spyware from the Israeli company NSO Group, which, according to NSO, is sold only to governments.
In 2018, Citizen Lab discovered evidence that servers used to install spyware from the NSO Group were embedded in Indian telecommunications networks. Two years later, in 2020, Citizen Lab and Amnesty found that 9 human rights defenders in India were hacked via email, resulting in commercial spyware being installed on their Windows computers.
In 2019, WhatsApp also sued the NSO, alleging that the firm used vulnerabilities in the messenger to hack about 1,400 people, and told the media that journalists and dissidents in India were among the victims. The NSO denies wrongdoing in the pending case. And last year, journalists working for OCCRP discovered customs records showing that the Indian intelligence bureau, the internal security agency, was receiving shipments of equipment that met Pegasus specifications from NSO offices outside of Tel Aviv.
The events reflect the dangers faced by critics of the government in India, and show how far the Modi administration can go to divert suspicion from its involvement in hacking attacks.
Apple has warned Indian journalists and opposition politicians about attempts by government hackers to hack their iPhones. In response, representatives of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched an investigation into the security of Apple devices and expressed doubts about the company's internal security algorithms. This is reported by The Washington Post, citing information from sources.
Senior officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration have demanded that Apple representatives in India mitigate the political impact of the warnings, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. An Apple security expert from abroad was also called in for a meeting in New Delhi, where he was supposed to offer alternative explanations for the warnings to users.
The events raised concerns at Apple's Cupertino headquarters and highlighted how even powerful tech companies can face pressure from the active leadership of one of the world's most populous countries and a key technology market.
Among the 20 people who received warnings from Apple were journalists and politicians critical of Modi and his ally, businessman Gautam Adani. Also among those who received notifications was a representative of the largest opposition party. Two journalists, Anand Mangnale and Ravi Nair of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), were notified that their phones had been hacked.
On August 31, the OCCRP project published a joint investigation with the British news agencies Financial Times and Guardian, which reported that Adani's long-time associates funneled funds through offshore shell companies into publicly traded Adani shares. Adani denied the allegations contained in the story, but the report spurred calls for a parliamentary inquiry into alleged stock manipulation and renewed criticism that the Modi government failed to regulate Adani's dealings out of loyalty to the businessman.
According to an Amnesty analysis, hours after OCCRP requested Adani's comment a week before the story was published, unknown hackers used the Blastpass exploit to break into Mangnale's phone and install Pegasus. Amnesty said it found no evidence of Anand's phone being hacked, which is not uncommon after sophisticated attacks.
Representatives of the Adani Group and the BJP deny involvement in the hacking attacks and call for evidence to be provided for an investigation by the Indian government. But earlier, the journalists ' association Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International found that the phones of Indian journalists and political figures were infected with Pegasus spyware from the Israeli company NSO Group, which, according to NSO, is sold only to governments.
In 2018, Citizen Lab discovered evidence that servers used to install spyware from the NSO Group were embedded in Indian telecommunications networks. Two years later, in 2020, Citizen Lab and Amnesty found that 9 human rights defenders in India were hacked via email, resulting in commercial spyware being installed on their Windows computers.
In 2019, WhatsApp also sued the NSO, alleging that the firm used vulnerabilities in the messenger to hack about 1,400 people, and told the media that journalists and dissidents in India were among the victims. The NSO denies wrongdoing in the pending case. And last year, journalists working for OCCRP discovered customs records showing that the Indian intelligence bureau, the internal security agency, was receiving shipments of equipment that met Pegasus specifications from NSO offices outside of Tel Aviv.
The events reflect the dangers faced by critics of the government in India, and show how far the Modi administration can go to divert suspicion from its involvement in hacking attacks.