The smartphone of an Indian journalist, who works for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and reported on the alleged stock manipulation by the Adani Group, was allegedly targeted using Pegasus spyware in August, the organisation’s co-founder Drew Sullivan told Reuters on Tuesday.
According to Sullivan, hackers tried to plant the spyware made by Israeli cyber intelligence company NSO into journalist Anand Mangnale’s iPhone.
An internal forensic investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project linked the cyber attack against Mangnale’s phone to NSO’s Pegasus hacking tool.
Pegasus allows hackers to record calls, intercept messages and transform the phones into portable listening devices. The spyware is licensed to governments around the world.
“Whatever government is spying on the reporters, there’s no plausible explanation for that other than political gain,” Sullivan told Reuters.
He termed the attempt as “unacceptable and outrageous”.
In August, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project published a report by journalists Ravi Nair and Mangnale on alleged stock manipulation by the Adani Group. The report alleged that two investors who pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the Adani Group through offshore funds have close ties to the conglomerate’s promoters. The report raised questions about the possible violation of Indian stock market rules.
Anti-phone hacking firm iVerify, which carried out forensic…
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