The founding editor of one of India's largest news websites is among the journalists to be targeted by the Pegasus spyware.
A joint investigation by the rights group Amnesty International and The Washington Post, published Thursday, found evidence that the invasive spyware is being used again to target media in India.
Made and marketed by Israeli company the NSO Group, the spyware can be used to access a phone's messages and emails, peruse photos, eavesdrop on calls, track locations and even film the owner with the camera.
Researchers for years have tracked how the software, which is usually sold to governments, has been found on devices belonging to journalists, activists and critics worldwide.
In the latest research, forensic investigations found evidence of the spyware on the iPhones of Siddharth Varadarajan of the news website The Wire, and Anand Mangnale of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP.
Findings show both were targeted from the same Pegasus user.
"Increasingly, journalists in India face the threat of unlawful surveillance simply for doing their jobs, alongside other tools of repression, including imprisonment under draconian laws, smear campaigns, harassment, and intimidation," Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, who heads Amnesty International's Security Lab, said in a statement.
Ó Cearbhaill added that despite repeated instances of how Pegasus has been used in India, "There has been a shameful lack of accountability."
India's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to VOA's request for comment.
The NSO group, in a statement emailed to VOA and attributed to a spokesperson, said that the group cannot comment on customers but that "all of them are vetted law enforcement and intelligence agencies that license our technologies for the sole purpose of fighting terror and major crime."
"The company's policies and contracts provide mechanisms to avoid targeting of journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders or political dissidents that are not involved in terror or serious crimes," the statement read, adding that in "all cases of credible allegations of potential product misuse, NSO conducts a preliminary review to determine whether there is sufficient information and technical basis to appropriately investigate the allegation, according to our compliance policies."
Amnesty reported that it first suspected renewed Pegasus activity during regular monitoring by its researchers in June.
It investigated further after Apple sent notifications to iPhone users in October warning they had been targeted by "state sponsored attackers." Around 20 politicians and journalists in India received the notifications.
Amnesty then carried out a forensic analysis for individuals who received the warnings.
Around that time, the OCCRP had been investigating an Indian tycoon, Gautam Adani, who is an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and founder of the multinational conglomerate known as the Adani Group.
Mangnale told the French news agency AFP he was targeted "within hours" of sending questions to the Adani Group on behalf of the OCCRP.
A spokesperson for the Adani Group denied to The Washington Post that its owner was involved or had any knowledge of the hacking attempt.
In the case of Varadarajan, the journalist has been targeted previously, Amnesty said.
The latest attempt, in October, did not appear to be successful.
Varadarajan told the Post he believes the attempted hacking may be related to opposition to the detention of a prominent news publisher in New Delhi.
In a statement, Amnesty's Ó Cearbhaill highlighted the chilling effect spyware has on media freedom.
"Targeting journalists solely for doing their work amounts to an unlawful attack on their privacy and violates their right to freedom of expression," Ó Cearbhaill said.
In 2021, New Delhi was accused of using Pegasus to surveil journalists, opposition politicians and activists, with leaked documents showing the spyware had been used against more than 1,000 Indian phone numbers.
Prime Minister Modi's main rival, Rahul Gandhi, was among those targeted.
The government denied conducting "illegal surveillance" but refused to cooperate with a Supreme Court probe into the allegations, the findings of which have not been made public.
Following the October notifications sent by Apple, Indian authorities were reported to be investigating whether opposition politicians were targeted.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, the information and technology minister, said the government was "concerned" by the complaints.
The Washington Post reported that one day after Apple sent the notifications, government officials in India announced they would investigate the security of Apple devices.
India's media freedom record has declined in the past decade, falling 21 places to 161 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 shows the best environment for journalism.
Some information for this report comes from Agence France-Presse.
