Surveillance

Hooking Candiru Another Mercenary Spyware Vendor Comes into Focus  https://citizenlab.ca/2021/07/hooking-candiru-another-mercenary-spyware-vendor-comes-into-focus/ By Bill Marczak, John Scott-Railton, Kristin Berdan, Bahr Abdul Razzak, and Ron Deibert July 15, 2021

The company known as “Candiru,” based in Tel Aviv, Israel, is a mercenary spyware firm that markets “untraceable” spyware to government customers. Their product offering includes solutions for spying on computers, mobile devices, and cloud accounts. Like many of its peers, Candiru appears to license its spyware by number of concurrent infections, which reflects the number of targets that can be under active surveillance at any one instant in time. Like NSO Group, Candiru also appears to restrict the customer to a set of approved countries.

Candiru’s apparent widespread presence, and the use of its surveillance technology against global civil society, is a potent reminder that the mercenary spyware industry contains many players and is prone to widespread abuse. This case demonstrates, yet again, that in the absence of any international safeguards or strong government export controls, spyware vendors will sell to government clients who will routinely abuse their services. Many governments that are eager to acquire sophisticated surveillance technologies lack robust safeguards over their domestic and foreign security agencies. Many are characterized by poor human rights track records. It is not surprising that, in the absence of strong legal restraints, these types of government clients will misuse spyware services to track journalists, political opposition, human rights defenders, and other members of global civil society.

Mysterious Israeli Spyware Vendor’s Windows Zero-Days Caught in the Wild  https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvz5yv/israeli-spyware-vendor-candiru-zero-day-exploits-microsoft-citizen-lab  The company said it detected hacking attempts on more than 100 victims including "politicians, human rights activists, journalists, academics, embassy workers, and political dissidents" in Palestine, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Spain, UK, and other countries. Citizen Lab said it was able to identify and reach out to a victim who let its researchers analyze their computer and extract the malware.

Is the Modi government behind phone tapping? Pegasus I Modi Govt. I Phone tapping  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2qBHJ2JLZM 

पत्रकारों और सामाजिक कार्यकर्ताओं की फोन टैपिंग क्या मोदी सरकार करवा रही थी? अगर हाँ तो किसलिए? वरिष्ठ पत्रकार प्रोनंजय गुहाठाकुरता के साथ मुकेश कुमार की बातचीत

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta: https://youtu.be/F2qBHJ2JLZM?t=228 phone tapping was normal. But  Any phone tapping by law requires Home Secretary's prior permission.  Relates his experiecne with the submitting his phone  mar 2018 for at least three months.. when I was doing a story Dhirubhai Ambani's earlier assets in his village.. then we wrote about it in Newsclick, ( who incidently faces an ED probe.. )

Who is behind the phone tapping of powerful people of India? । PHONE TAPPING । PEGASUS  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EHLqAjVCBk  Jul 18, 2021

क्या भारत के मंत्रियों, सुप्रीम कोर्ट के जजों, संघ के नेताओं और पत्रकारों की फोन टैपिंग हुई? अगर हुई तो किसके आदेश पर? मुकेश कुमार के साथ चर्चा में हिस्सा ले रहे हैं- अशोक वानखेड़े, शिवकांत, शीतल पी सिंह, आलोक जोशी और विजय त्रिवेदी

Were the phones of India's ministers, Supreme Court judges, union leaders and journalists being tapped? If so, on whose orders? Taking part in the discussion with Mukesh Kumar - Ashok Wankhede, Shivkant, Sheetal P Singh, Alok Joshi and Vijay Trivedi

Modi Government Can Listen To Bedroom Conversations, Says Congress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNaIBzLsaX4 Jul 19, 2021

Randeep Surjewala in Congress press conferene says that the snooped include Hindu newspaper, Indina Express,HT, The wire, Mint, TV 18 inida, India today, EPW, Pioneer, News Click, Tribune, Outlook, DNA, among others.  

BAnner/caption card say.. ; Rahul Gandhi targeted in Pegasus "hack:: Pralad Patel, Union Minister in Pegasus List., ex EC, Ashok Lavasa, Prashant Kishor, 

No Evidence Linking Government, BJP": Ravi Shankar Prasad On Pegasus  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2uCkltXUgA 

The former IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad added a fresh angle to the mix this evening. "If more than 45 nations are using Pegasus, like NSO has said, why is only India being targeted?"

"The NSO, which is the manufacturer of Pegasus, has clearly said that its clients are mostly Western nations. So why is India being targetted in this matter? What is the story behind this? What is the twist in the tale?" he added.

Denying any role of government yet again, Mr Prasad said, "There not a shred of evidence in the entire Pegasus story that there is any linkage of the government or the BJP".

The question of government involvement had come up following the categorical statement from NSO since beginning -- that they supply their software only to "vetted governments" and their agencies.

In 2019, when WhatsApp had alleged that many of its user's accounts had been compromised by the use of Pegasus, Mr Prasad had termed the allegations of government involvement an "attempt to malign" its image.