“PEGASUS, NATIONAL SECURITY VS RIGHT TO PRIVACY”

“PEGASUS, NATIONAL SECURITY VS RIGHT TO PRIVACY”

RAHAT GULFAM MATTOO

Recently, it has been reported that Pegasus, the malicious software, has allegedly been used to secretly monitor and spy on an extensive host of public figures in India. As many as more than 300 Indians had their phone hacked by a government agency using this Pegasus software and the list of potential victims includes Rahul Gandhi, Ashok Lavasa, Prashant Kishore, several Journalists, Activists, Scientists, a couple of Ministers as well. Before all this let us know what this Pegasus is?

Pegasus is a mythical winged divine horse (white) and one of the most recognized creatures, in Greek mythology. But today’s talk is not about this Pegasus, today’s talk is about a group called NSO group which is an Israeli firm and this group makes software/malware called “PEGASUS”. NSO says it is in the business of cyber intelligence for global security and stability, its primary product is called Pegasus. It is a program so sophisticated that it can be impaired into your mobile phone through just one phone call even if you don’t take that call. So Pegasus is spyware developed by NSO group an Israeli company that specializes in what experts call “Cyber Weapon”. It first came to the limelight in 2016 when Arab activists get suspicious after receiving a shady message.

Pegasus infect is widely sought after because it can hack into iPad and iPhone despite Apple products being touted to be among the safest and best for data privacy. Pegasus can monitor up to 500 phones in a year, but can only track a maximum of 50 at one go. The report citing sources adds that it costs about 1million dollars per year to license Pegasus. It can infect a device by a “Zero Click Attack” which does not require any action from phone users.

But the government of India is denying i.e government rejected insinuations that Pegasus software may have been used to target Politicians, Judges, Activists, Journalists, Lawyers, etc. and if the government is denying what will be its impact on “India – Israel” relations. Even if the government says that they are surveilling to keep the people safe, then what about the “Right to Privacy and Right to Freedom of Expression”? Is individual nothing in front of the state? Everyone knows that the state is by the people and not people by the state.

The gravity of this matter is huge. It blatantly goes against the “Right to Privacy”. At last, this is one of the biggest challenges in democracies to keep the balance between Privacy and National Interest.

(The author is a freelance writer from Kishtwar, J&K and can be reached at mattoorahat@gmail.com ).