Citizen Lab and Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul's find provided the basis for Apple's November 2021 lawsuit against NSO spyware company.
Today a special bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana is scheduled to examine an interim report of its technical committee which is examining allegations of the government using Pegasus. The Israeli military grade software was allegedly used to spy on citizens.
Allegations are that a cross-section of people from various fields like journalists, activists, Parliamentarians, government officials, lawyers and even court staffers were targeted using Pegasus. This leads us to the story as to how it all began.
Read | Pegasus snooping case hearing today in Supreme Court on interim inquiry report
A single women's rights activist from Saudi Arabia helped turn the tide against the NSO Group, one of the world's most sophisticated spyware companies which is now under the scanner. It all started with a software glitch on her iPhone.
How it was discovered?
A mysterious fake image file was found within the iPhone of a Saudi women's rights activist named Loujain al-Hathloul. When Lajoun Al-Hathlol was released from prison in February last year, she suspected that her iPhone had been hacked. Hacking iPhone is not something common as it is considered the most secure phone in the world.
Soon after her release from jail in February 2021, the activist received an email from Google warning her that state-backed hackers had tried to penetrate her Gmail account. Lajoun Al-Hathlol handed over his phone to Citizen Lab, a Canadian organisation, and asked them to find out the matter.
It was then that privacy researchers discovered a trove of evidence suggesting the Israeli spyware maker had helped hack her iPhone. After six months of investigation, Citizen Lab made an unprecedented discovery. A malfunction in the surveillance software implanted on her phone had left a copy of the malicious image file, rather than deleting itself, after stealing the messages of its target.
After the discovery, amounting to a hacking blueprint, they informed Apple Inc and asked them to notify thousands of other state-backed hacking victims around the world. Citizen Lab and Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul's find provided the basis for Apple's November 2021 lawsuit against NSO.
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