ISLAMABAD – The mobile phones of at least two dozen Pakistani governmentofficials were allegedly targeted earlier this year through Whatsapp by anIsraeli spyware company NSO Group, according to a report published in theGuardian.
The report said in such cases the hackers then succeeded to access the dataof the affected person very easily.
The UK newspaper report cited sources as saying that scores of Pakistanisenior defense and intelligence officials were among those whoseinformation could have been undermined.
Meanwhile, the exceptional sort of malware named is “Pegasus” which wasutilized by the NSO group, supposedly between 28 April and 10 May 2019,which affected around 1400 senior government authorities, militaryauthorities, human rights activists and journalists in twenty nationsincluding Pakistan.
Initially, the breach was first debunked by the Financial Times in May,though at that time WhatsApp alerted users to the suspicious video callsand updated the app to fix the breach, yet didn’t distinguish the Israeliorganization as behind the assault. It is then found in October that theNSO group is behind each one of those attacked, however, why the NSO grouphas provoked and who supported it is yet to be unveiled.
The researcher said, the malicious code could be transmitted regardless ofwhether the user didn’t answer their telephones, and the calls regularlyvanished from call logs.
On the other hand, WhatsApp said that it worked closely with Citizen Lab, aresearch group affiliated with the University of Toronto, focusing oncybersecurity, to investigate the attacks and to refrain such in the future— WhatsApp has also filed a lawsuit against NSO in America in October —which accused the company of “unauthorized access and abuse” of itsservices.
It is relevant to mention that Pakistan is ranked among the top sevencountries for inadequate cybersecurity, with 25 percent of its mobilephones and 14.8 percent of computers infected with malware, according to astudy conducted by Comparitech, a UK based research company.
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Although, NSO group denied all allegations and said: “the sole purpose ofNSO is to provide technology to licensed government intelligence and lawenforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime”.
Pakistan’s Stance
Prior in November, the Pakistani government requested the government workerto utilize such telephones which were being made before May 2019 andfurthermore reflecting to have a full boycott for sharing significantrecords on Whatsapp. Meanwhile, the government has promised to make alocal-built application for the authorities to ensure privacy.
“We have been working to improve our cybersecurity and develop a messagingapplication like WhatsApp for government officials,” Dr. Arslan Khalid,Prime Minister Imran Khan’s focal person on digital media had said whilegiving an interview to the Arab News.
He said the application would cost around Rs1.3 billion and would belaunched by June 2020. “Everyone will be on this application, including thepresident and the prime minister,” he added.
