Not India, but somewhat relevant:
It’s been confirmed that the Egyptian government recently carried out a targeted attack taking advantage of a 0-day on a presidential candidate’s phone: https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/09/how-the-iphone-of-a-presidential-candidate-in-egypt-got-hacked-for-the-2nd-time (Edit: Link was pointing to second page of the article; changed to first page)
Related discussion on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37614816
Also this report from Google’s TAG: https://blog.google/threat-analysis-group/0-days-exploited-by-commercial-surveillance-vendor-in-egypt/
This is the best summary I could come up with:
NEW DELHI Oct 31 (Reuters) - Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of trying to hack into senior opposition politicians’ mobile phones, after they reported receiving warning messages from Apple (AAPL.O).
“Hack us all you want,” Gandhi told a news conference in New Delhi, in reference to Modi.
Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw expressed concern at the lawmakers’ statements and said the government had asked Apple to join its investigation into the matter.
Jairam Ramesh, spokesperson for Gandhi’s Congress party, called Apple’s clarification a “long-winded non-denial” of a security breach.
In 2021, India was rocked by reports that the government had used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to snoop on scores of journalists, activists and politicians, including Gandhi.
The government has declined to reply to questions whether India or any of its state agencies had purchased Pegasus spyware for surveillance.
The original article contains 247 words, the summary contains 145 words. Saved 41%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Never assume your devices are secure.
Always encrypt sensitive information.
On a somewhat related note, a lot of this spyware and 0-days happen to be bought from Israel.
Not that it necessarily relates to the current situation, but I just find it funny that many countries have had access to this type of stuff via backroom deals with Israel, even with countries who are publicly against Israel.
Ex: Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt
