Spyware scandal sheds doubt on ‘world’s largest democracy’ claim – Asia Times

In the recent revelation of the Pegasus scandal, the line between a democratic state and the police state has blurred in India. India is listed among a group of countries whose governments appear to have bought Pegasus spyware developed by NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm a charge neither denied nor accepted by the Indian government.

It is considered to be one of the most powerful mobile-phone hacking tools, which allows clients secretly to read every message of their targets, track their location, operate their microphone, and even film them through their camera remotely. It is like a Trojan horse, something that initially seems innocuous but is ultimately bad or malicious.

Pegasus is highly sophisticated spyware that is capable of infecting a mobile phone or device without any interaction with the owner. What is astonishing is the exorbitant cost of this spyware. It runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars per phone, apart from the fact that NSO charges an annual system maintenance fee of 17% of the total cost of the program.

via asiatimes.com

India.