REPORT BY DISRUPTORS FOR OBSTRUCTORS, SAYS SHAH

NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday blamed reports of the Indian government allegedly using Israeli software Pegasus to hack the phones of journalists, activists, ministers and politicians as an operation by global “disruptors” in collusion with domestic “obstructors”, and said forces that were not able to digest India’s progress would “not be able to derail the development trajectory through their conspiracies”.

NEW DELHI: NSO Group, a private Israeli cybersecurity firm that sells the spyware Pegasus, has dismissed media reports that alleged that phones of prominent personalities, including journalists, politicians and experts in India were targeted for surveillance, terming them “full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories”.

“The report by Forbidden Stories is full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories that raise serious doubts about the reliability and interests of the sources. It seems like the ‘unidentified sources’ have supplied information that has no factual basis and are far from reality,” the NSO Group said in a statement.

“We deny the false allegations made in their report. Their sources have supplied them with information which has no factual basis, as evident by the lack of supporting documentation for many of their claims. In fact, these allegations are so outrageous... that NSO is considering a defamation lawsuit.”

An investigation by a consortium of media houses has alleged that phone hacking software Pegasus was used to target potentially thousands of people around the world, including 38 Indian journalists, and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, political strategist Prashant Kishor and former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa.

In its statement, the NSO Group also said that it “has a good reason to believe the claims that are made by the unnamed sources to Forbidden Stories, are based on misleading interpretation of data from accessible and overt basic information...”