NEW DELHI – Indian government has been buying a new spyware system with a lower profile than the Pegasus, and the critics have already warned of grave human rights violations, as BJP believes in muzzling dissent, and unlawfully targeting critics.
A report in a leading Indian publication said it went through the trade data and it came out that an Indian defence agency is acquiring a spyware system developed by Israel’s NSO Group. It said Cognyte and its former-parent firm supplied spyware system to the signal intelligence directorate, which comes under the defence agency.
The latest product from the Israeli firm was brought in January this year, however, the exact type of equipment remained unknown, per the report.
The recent claims surfaced days after a report by the British daily said the Modi-led government mulls spending around Rs1000 crores on new spyware to keep an eye on rivals.
Amid the shocking revelation, Indian defence ministry has remained tight-lipped on the issue and has not issued any statement, till the filing of this report.
Cognyte, the rival spyware firm of Pegasus, remained in a bad light across the globe as its targeted media personnel, government dissidents, HR activists, and opposition leaders without their knowledge.
Last year, a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed that Indian intelligence agency got hardware from the Israeli group while the matter garnered a lot of heat as several phone numbers of defiant leaders, and government critics were on the list of presumed targets accessed by the media consortium.
