Indian Government Looking To Buy NSO-Esque Malware, But Not From NSO (original) (raw)

from the we-don't-want-to-look-shittier-than-we-already-do dept

When NSO Group began making the wrong kind of headlines all over the world, suddenly lots of governments began at least feigning an interest in caring about what third-party tools their intelligence and security agencies were using to conduct surveillance.

The problem wasn’t just NSO Group. True, the Israel-based firm was more than happy to sell powerful phone exploits to human rights abusers, but plenty of governments without horrendous human rights records were also participating in extremely questionable targeting of journalists, activists, and critics.

The government of India was one of many that opened investigations into NSO Group and its own agencies’ acquisition and use of its spyware. In India, though, the investigation didn’t originate with Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the legislative branch that has helped enable his worst abuses and excesses. Those entities probably couldn’t care less if government critics, investigative journalists, and opposition party figures were targeted by illegal surveillance. This investigation was opened by the country’s Supreme Court, which has one of the few government entities willing to stand up to Modi.

This investigation determined the Indian government had never deployed NSO Group’s most powerful phone exploit, Pegasus. The government, for its part, refuses to confirm or deny acquisition or use of Pegasus. But it is very much still interested in purchasing powerful spyware that will no doubt be abused by the Modi government. But this abusive government has some standards: it won’t be buying from NSO.

Several companies from countries including Australia, Italy, France, Cyprus and Belarus are likely to take part in India’s auction. Request for proposals are likely to go out in the coming weeks, the FT said.

India, the FT reported, feels that Israeli company NSO and its Pegasus hacking software have become too high-profile and is looking for a more low-key alternative. “India’s move shows how demand for this sophisticated – and largely unregulated – remains strong despite growing evidence that governments worldwide have abused spyware by targeting dissidents and critics,” the FT said.

This isn’t the government being responsible. It’s just a government that generates enough negative press on its own trying to avoid generating even more. And while the report says plenty of companies not based in Israel and founded by former Israeli intelligence operatives will be submitting bids, chances are the Indian government will be going to Exploit Central to obtain its next set of phone hacking tools.

The top contenders to supply India with a Pegasus lookalike include Intellexa, an Israeli company which makes Predator surveillance spyware and which is being sued in a Greek court. Other companies likely to be in the running include Quadream and Cognyte, both Israeli surveillance technology companies. Quadream’s founders include two ex-NSO employees.

The problem with this is that NSO’s competitors are starting to generate negative press of their own. There’s the Greek government fiasco mentioned in the article. And NSO competitor Candiru was sanctioned by the US Commerce Department the same day NSO Group was, which makes it no less headline-worthy than buying from current surveillance Public Enemy No. 1.

Cognyte is no better than these other options, having been caught selling powerful tech to UN-blacklisted countries. Neither is Quadream, which — like all of its Israeli-originating competitors — is more than happy to sell spyware to governments with long histories of human rights abuse.

Of course, the Indian government is currently in the human rights abuse business, so it’s probably not going to reject offers just because they came from companies formed by Israeli intelligence operatives who are more than willing to set morals and ethics aside in order to rack up sales. But it’s not going to buy from NSO Group because it’s unwilling to take that particular PR hit. That’s where the Modi government draws the line.

Filed Under: india, spyware, surveillance
Companies: nso group