‘Detecting Pegasus in India’ with Anand Venkatanarayanan By Himanshi Goswami March 4, 2022

  https://www.medianama.com/2022/03/223-video-detecting-pegasus-in-india-with-anand-venkatanarayanan/  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRgpurqk5pU
What was found in the devices of Sushant Singh and Siddharth Varadarajan?
How do we determine that it is Pegasus and not some other malware?
What are the evidentiary indicators that point towards the Government of India?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_8200 

Unit 8200 is an Israeli Intelligence Corps unit of the Israel Defense Forces responsible for clandestine operation, collecting signal intelligence (SIGINT) and code decryption, counterintelligence, cyberwarfare, military intelligence, and surveillance.  The unit is composed primarily of 18–21 year olds.  Former Unit 8200 soldiers have, after completing their military service, gone on to founding and occupying top positions in many international IT companies and in Silicon Valley . According to the Director of Military Sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, "Unit 8200 is probably the foremost technical intelligence agency in the world and stands on a par with the NSA in everything except scale." -

https://www.ft.com/content/69f150da-25b8-11e5-bd83-71cb60e8f08c 

Gilad became troubled by the intrusive methods being used against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The refuseniks say they were asked to gather information not only on people suspected of plotting to harm Israel but on their family members, neighbours and others who might supply information about them.

Gilad told me. “You get inside people’s lives and you laugh about their sexual habits or medical problems. And it shows how far it goes. It shows you how power can corrupt.”

Israel withdrew its military from much of the West Bank in the early 1990s and all of Gaza in 2005, but its forces can still enter Palestinian Authority-controlled areas for arrests or other security operations. Palestinians in both territories depend on permits to travel into Israel or Jerusalem, giving Israeli authorities, the protesters said, the ability to barter for information.

“It’s one thing to spy on Iranians or Syrians, another to spy on Palestinians, because they are subjects of Israel,” Gilad said. “It’s more like spying on your own citizens.”

Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud's book diligently documents not just the ghastly consequences of state surveillance on individuals but juxtaposes these with stories of resistance and courage. https://thewire.in/books/the-most-dangerous-software-known-to-humankind 

The privately-owned Israeli company called the NSO Group that developed the world’s most dangerous surveillance tool claims that it is used for law-enforcement: for nabbing terrorists, drug dealers, paedophiles, tracking drones and even finding people trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building. But this spyware – and its clones and imitations, including one named Predator – that is supposedly made available only to government law-enforcing agencies after due authorisation by the Israeli government, is also misused by regimes across the world, especially authoritarian ones. Only governments, and perhaps indirectly a few big business groups, can shell out the big bucks needed for the targeted deployment of Pegasus. Although Tel Aviv claims that the spyware is sold only to government bodies and NSO denies its unauthorised use – this argument is what Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud’s book Pegasus: The Story of the World’s Most Dangerous Spyware seeks to dispute and demolish.

by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

02/11/2023

Centre buying Pegasus-type ‘snooping’ spyware ‘Cognyte’: Congress   By Saptarshi Das Apr 10, 2023 03:51 PM IST https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/congress-alleges-government-trying-to-buy-pegasus-type-spyware-cognyte-for-986-crore-to-snoop-on-politicians-media-activists-and-ngos-101681122086755-amp.html
Cognyte’s webpage states that the Israeli software is a “global leader in investigative analytics software that empowers governments and enterprises with Actionable Intelligence for a Safer World”

The Congress on Monday said the Union government is trying to buy a Pegasus-type spying software called ‘Cognyte’ at a cost of ₹986 crore, and alleged that it will be used to snoop on politicians, media, activists, and NGOs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr26ebb_2CA  

बड़ा खुलासा: जनता का 986 करोड़ खर्च कर Modi सरकार ने जासूसी के लिए नया सॉफ़्टवेयर ख़रीदा है। Cognyte 10th Apr 2023