Cyber attack: At least nine rights activists targeted

At least nine human rights activists were targeted last year with attempting computer hacking, researchers at Canada-based Citizen Lab and Amnesty International said in a report on Monday, detailing an operation that used email-delivered links that would infect the target’s computer with commercially available spyware.

Among the targets were lawyers representing the activists arrested over the Bhima Koregaon case and some of who were subject to attacks through the Pegasus spyware that was delivered through WhatsApp.

“Between January and October 2019, each of the targets were sent spearphishing emails containing malicious links that, if opened, would have installed NetWire, a commercially available spyware,” they said in the blog post.