A spy software that can hack any phone, is also a weapon against terror, and a tool to spy on opponents.
The first day of the Parliament session was named after the Pegasus Report. The opposition created a ruckus on this issue and the government in its cleanliness termed this report as a conspiracy.
In fact, on Sunday night, many media houses in America reported that Pegasus spyware is being used in many countries of the world, of which India is also one. Since then the opposition is in full swing and is trying to surround the government on this issue.
According to the report, Pegasus spyware is being used in spying through phone tapping and many big politicians, journalists, activists and businessmen of India have been spied through it.
Pegasus means flying horse. This is a spyware, that is, software that can be used in spying. Simply put, this software can hack any phone. It has been prepared by Israel's cyber security company NSO, and has been bought by many countries including Bangladesh.
The company says that we only sell software to governments and that too if it is to save someone's life. It is also used against terrorism and crime. There is no such information about India whether the government has bought 'Pegasus' from NSO or not.
But cases of its misuse by the governments have also come to the fore. The government of Mexico to Saudi Arabia has also been accused of its misuse.
Several other companies, including Facebook-owned company Facebook, have sued it. Because it can easily read all the messages from them.
How does Pegasus work?
Pegasus is a program that if inserted into a smartphone phone, a hacker can get all the information related to that smartphone's microphone, camera, audio and text messages, email and location.
According to a report by cyber security company, Pegasus also enables encrypted audio to be listened to and encrypted messages to be read.
Also Read - Know whether your e-mail ID or mobile number is involved in the data leak
Let us tell you that all the messages of WhatsApp are encrypted, and the company claims that even the people of the company themselves cannot read them.
The specialty of this software is that it can trace all the calls, texts and other conversations made from the smartphone and the monitor.
It can also activate your phone's microphone or camera. It can also break into generally considered safe Apple phones. By the way, Apple has put an update to deal with this.
Why is there a ruckus in India?
According to the report of The Wire, the leaked data about Pegasus also includes 300 Indian mobile numbers. Of these, 40 mobile numbers belong to Indian journalists.
Apart from these, there are three big opposition leaders, two Union ministers in the Modi government, current and former heads of security agencies and many businessmen.
The report also pointed out that these numbers were targeted between 2018-2019, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The names of some big leaders include Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, election strategist Prashant Kishor and Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
The special thing is that the names of two BJP ministers Ashwini Vaishnav and Prahlad Patel have also appeared in this list.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has recently been included in the Modi cabinet and he himself is the IT Minister. By the way, when it comes to making him a target in 2018-19, he was an MP at that time.
What does the government say?
Opposition parties in Parliament fiercely raised the issue of phone tapping and espionage through Pegasus spyware. But IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav rubbished the allegations and said that there are already stringent laws regarding phone tapping in the country and this is not possible in India.
The minister also raised questions on the report coming to the fore just a day before the Parliament session and said that it appears to be a well-planned conspiracy to defame the government.