The messaging platform WhatsApp has defended itself saying that it had informed the government about the hack in May, earlier this year.
New Delhi| The WhatsApp Snoopgate scandal has shaken India. In the past two days several academicians, lawyers and human rights activists have come forward who were contacted by WhatsApp to notify them that they were on the spying list. It was on Thursday that the Facebook-owned platform came out with a shocking revelation that journalists and human rights activists in India have been a victim of surveillance by anonymous operators using Israeli spyware Pegasus.
After the news came out, the IT Ministry took note of the issue and sought a response from WhatsApp over the incident. The Ministry has given the deadline of November 4. The Centre is apparently upset with the personal messaging platform for not bringing the ‘Hack’ to its notice earlier.
Centre upset with WhatsApp
Reportedly, Information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had a meeting with the top brass from the WhatsApp management on 26 July and 11 September to discuss the government’s concerns over “traceability of messages”. The IT Act also lays down the rule that if there are any instances of Cyber-Attack or Hacking, Centre has to be notified first for the purpose of national security. The Centre is unhappy that WhatsApp failed to do that.
WhatsApp said notified Centre in May
On the other hand, WhatsApp has defended itself saying that it had informed the government about the hack in May, earlier this year. The platform said that it had notified the Indian Authorities about the Privacy breach. In a statement, WhatsApp said,
“Our highest priority is the privacy and security of WhatsApp users. In May, we quickly resolved a security issue and notified relevant Indian and international government authorities.”
“Since then we’ve worked to identify targeted users to ask the courts to hold the international spyware firm known as the NSO Group accountable.”
Sources: WhatsApp had given information to CERT-IN, a government agency as seen in the attached image in May. As is seen in the image, it is a communication in pure technical jargon without any mention of Pegasus or the extent of breach. pic.twitter.com/RPIgIntu1X
— ANI (@ANI) November 1, 2019
Centre says WhatsApp did not mention Pegasus
WhatsApp’s claim was refuted by the government. According to ANI, sources showed a screenshot of CERT-IN (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team). The sources said while WhatsApp had shared the Info with the CERT-IN, it did not mention the extent of the breach of Pegasus software.
One of the government officials told an English daily that WhatsApp didn’t divulge the details that Indian users were being spied on.
India wants WhatsApp to be more transparent
India had earlier pursued with the messaging platform about the transparency. The Indian government has been urging the platform to build a system so that it can trace the origin of malicious messages. The centre’s move came in the light of the increase in the incident of Mob Lynching and Fake News.
However, not only India, countries like United States, United Kingdom and Australia have sought more accountability from WhatsApp.
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