Intelligence from Independent sources presented in the Wire connects Pune Police to electronic manipulation of evidence, that target alleged the Bhima Koregaon investigation.
News Website, Wire on Thursday presented conclusive findings by researchers at security firm SentinelOne, Citizen Lab, and Amnesty International linking the manipulation of evidence aimed at the alleged in the Bhima Koregaon case by the Pune Police unit.
The report that questions the ethical loopholes of legal bodies owning rights to hacking software alleges the Pune police unit sent phishing mails that planted evidence in the computer devices of poet Varavara Roa and human rights activist Rona Wilson.
Wire, which presented the findings, argued that SentinelOne and Arsenal Consulting discovered a phone number and email address at the back-end of electronic addresses that may have hacked and planted evidence in the alleged’ personal devices.
The study found that the email address that planted malware in the devices of the accused matched with a recovery phone number and e-mail ID that was linked to the Pune police.
SentinelOne and Arsenal Consulting’s findings argue that the hacking campaign titled Modified Elephant planted evidence and manipulated data in the personal devices of several of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
The case touched upon violent protests between the Hindus and Dalits that broke out earlier in 2018.
Technical evidence in the same light came into the forefront in February 2021 when Arsenal Consulting studied evidence from Wilson’s device and concluded that the planted files (which include a threat letter to PM Narendra Modi) did not match the original Word software it was written in, and that version of the Word software was never installed in Wilson’s device.
Experts called for strict cyber reforms in India after the findings of the article.
SentinelOne, which has linked the connections between the police body and evidence manipulation, looks to present the results at the Black Hat security conference in August this year.
“This is beyond ethically compromised. It is beyond callous. So we’re trying to put as much data forward as we can in the hopes of helping these victims.”, said SentinelOne.
SentinelOne and Arsenal Consulting’s findings have also drawn links to the Israeli hacking contractor NSO, in its role in hacking the smartphones of the accused.
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