Targeted by WhatsApp spyware scandal, say civil rights activists and journalists

A number of Indian activists and journalists confirmed on Thursday that their WhatsApp accounts were being snooped into as part of a surveillance programme using an Israeli spyware platform. While it is not clear who benefited from the surveillance in India, disclosures made by WhatsApp seem to suggest that state actors could be behind it.

In May, WhatsApp announced that it had detected and blocked a new kind of cyberattack involving a vulnerability in the video-calling feature. A user would receive what appeared to be a video call. Once the phone rang, the attacker secretly transmitted malicious code to infect the victim’s phone with spyware. The person does not even have to answer the call. Now, after months of investigation, WhatsApp attributed the intrusion to a global technology company called NSO Group.