Making sense of Pegasus-derived data

Thanks to the groundbreaking investigative work of 16 media organisations internationally and The Wire in India, one now knows that the phone numbers of many in India appeared on a list of potential targets of surveillance by the Israeli spyware, Pegasus. This journalist’s name was not just on the list of potential targets of those whose phones may have been hacked. Not only that, his device was also confirmed to have been infected with Pegasus after a forensic test.

So, could the two incidents — the industrialist’s knowledge of the journalist’s private matters and the journalist’s phone having been infiltrated with Pegasus — be related or are they just coincidental? It is likely that the two incidents are linked, which then raises the question — how did the industrialist gain access to this information from this journalist’s phone and who else had and has this access?.

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In the example of the journalist cited here, Pegasus would have transmitted messages, emails, phone calls, pictures, video, camera, location and other such information from the journalist’s phone. But how exactly was this daily data, which was sent from the journalist’s phone, turned into meaningful information of specific financial transactions and conveyed to the industrialist? Pegasus software can only transmit data, it does not and cannot comprehend it.

The buyer spent such a large sum on each person to be able to listen to phone calls, watch movements, read messages, and capture each element of the individual’s life. But this cannot be done by Pegasus or any other machine. It needs a human on the other end to be able to listen, read and watch the person being spied on by Pegasus. Only a human can make sense of all the information that Pegasus sends from the infected phone.

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Pegasus transmits information from the infected phone non-stop (24x7x365). To gather all this data, decipher and analyse it, it would take at least a two-three member backend team for each person being snooped on. Given the possibly large-scale nature of the hack, it would take a few more thousand people on the backend to turn all of the Pegasus-transmitted data into meaningful and useful information for the buyer. Surely, the buyer did not spend all that money on Pegasus just to get a daily dump of data with no one to analyse it?.

Making sense of Pegasus-derived data Shri Radhey

More than a year ago, a senior journalist called me and narrated a strange personal experience. He said, one day, he was summoned to meet one of India’s biggest industrialists, ostensibly to discuss his critical reporting of the industrialist and his businesses. During this meeting, the industrialist apparently rattled out intricate details of some of the journalist’s private financial transactions, and spoke in an intimidatory tone. The journalist told me he was shocked that the industrialist — perceived as close to the ruling establishment in Delhi — had access to this private information. But since he had nothing to hide and had committed no crime, he said he walked out of the meeting nonchalantly.

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Women athletes and their journeys of grit. Shri Radhey

The first went to Saikhom Mirabai Chanu who set a new Olympic record with a successful 115 kg lift in clean and jerk. The second went to Lovlina Borgohain who, in her first Olympics, is now the third Indian boxer to ensure a podium finish, after Vijender Singh in 2008 and Mary Kom in 2012. PV Sindhu hauled in the third to become the first Indian woman to win two individual medals at an Olympics. At the time of writing, golfer Aditi Ashok could well bring home a silver.

And the Indian women’s hockey team made it to the semi-finals for the first time ever. Despite their 1-2 loss to Argentina, they fought hard against Great Britain in the match for the bronze, but unfortunately, lost 3-4.

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Behind the glitter of the medals lies a story of personal grit. Poverty and marginalisation cut across gender, but women face special discrimination that ranges from fighting to be born to being allowed to play a sport. “Women face so many restrictions, from their mobility and the way that they dress to the social pressures that prevent girls from taking up sport, particularly contact sport,” says former national-level volleyball player Kanta Singh, now, country programme manager at United Nations Women.

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Perhaps the biggest change can be seen among the women themselves. Sport, says Sharda Ugra who has spent most of her career writing on men’s sport, has given women freedom, power and confidence. It “makes us brave,” Rani Rampal told Ugra.

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It also sends a message. “People in my village now think it’s okay to want their daughters admitted into a good college in another place,” goalkeeper Savita Punia told Ugra. “They tell my parents, Savita can go so far away, to other countries, other states, why can’t we send our daughters to another district?” Now, that’s a good distance to cover.

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It also sends a message. “People in my village now think it’s okay to want their daughters admitted into a good college in another place,” goalkeeper Savita Punia told Ugra. “They tell my parents, Savita can go so far away, to other countries, other states, why can’t we send our daughters to another district?” Now, that’s a good distance to cover.

According to me surcharge of India and Afghanistan

Surely, we should be agitated that schools have been closed in India for 500 days now and, even where open, are facing resistance from parents who refuse to let children out of the house. A digital divide has seen millions of poor children simply abandon schooling. Only 11% of Indians have access to a digital device. What would be the reason to not import mRNA vaccines with the specific task of targeting the population below 18 years of age? In fact, it should be a priority.

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The fact is that India’s refusal to indemnify Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson is shortsighted and detrimental. That we need all the vaccines we can get and fast is just one part of the story. mRNA vaccines are thus far the only ones that have been used on children. Zydus Cadila is working on testing a vaccine on children in India. But it could be a while before its production pipeline is functional.

The fact is that India’s refusal to indemnify Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson is shortsighted and detrimental. That we need all the vaccines we can get and fast is just one part of the story. mRNA vaccines are thus far the only ones that have been used on children. Zydus Cadila is working on testing a vaccine on children in India. But it could be a while before its production pipeline is functional

What Xi Jinping did not say anything can happen due to surcharge radhey radhey

A decade ago, the brilliant Chinese writer Yu Hua penned a collection of essays titled China in Ten Words. By turns caustic, funny, and tragic, the book was a pithy commentary on modern China’s travails but also some of its triumphs. Some of Yu’s chosen words came to my mind upon hearing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman Xi Jinping’s speech last month to celebrate the CCP’s centennial founding. Specifically, the words: leader (lingxiu), revolution (geming), copycat (shanzhai), disparity (chaju), and bamboozle (huyou). These words underlined that what was interesting in Xi’s speech was not what he said, but what he did not say.

As new trading arrangements evolve, India is not in the room access of knowledge

A significant casualty at WTO has been the lack of any meaningful outcome of the negotiations on rules of trade that members set for themselves under the Doha Development Agenda in 2001. The fissures were officially recorded in the declaration of the 10th ministerial conference in 2015. Adopted by consensus, the Nairobi Declaration had then noted that while “many” members reaffirm the Doha mandate, others do not, and that while “many Members want to carry out the work on the basis of the Doha structure”, “some want to explore new architectures”, as well as “identify and discuss other issues for negotiation”. India had then expressed its deep disappointment at the Declaration...