Named after a mythical winged horse from Greek mythology, ‘Pegasus’ is the world’s most powerful cyberweapon. Developed by the privately owned Israeli NSO Group, the spyware was intended for use by government lawenforcement agencies. However, the software has been widely misused in several countries across the world to spy on politicians, including heads of government, journalists, lawyers, government officials, dissidents, and human rights activists, among others. In July 2021, ‘The Pegasus Project’ — comprising Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based international non-government organization, working in partnership with over 80 journalists from 17 organizations located in ten countries — documented how the spyware was misused to target opponents of ruling regimes. While several governments are investigating how the cyberweapon was wrongfully deployed, the government of India has chosen to neither confirm nor deny whether any of its agencies purchased or used Pegasus. Mr. Guha Thakurta was among the petitioners to the Supreme Court of India after his mobile phone was allegedly ‘compromised’ by the spyware, uniquely placing him to talk about what is arguably the most dangerous software known to humankind so far.
Mr Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is a well-known writer, political commentator, documentary filmmaker, and investigative journalist based in India. He has authored several books, including A Time of Coalitions: Divided We Stand (2004, co-authored with Shankar Raghuraman); Media Ethics (2009); and Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis (2014, co-authored); and has contributed to numerous edited volumes. He writes regularly in the mass media and has taught and researched as a visiting fellow at numerous prestigious universities. He was editor of the prestigious journal Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) between 2016 and 2017.
