In a startling claim, Akunuri Murali, a former civil servant based in Hyderabad, claimed that his phone was targeted by the Pegasus spyware developed by the Israeli company NSO.
This claims follows Mr. Murali informing The Hindu about a suspicious message he received on his iPhone from “[email protected]“ nearly a month ago. According to the message, “State-sponsored attackers” were attempting to compromise his iPhone remotely, associated with his email account.
Mr. Murali, who is the convener of the Social Democratic Forum and is also an activist, stated that he was contacted by The Citizen Lab, University of Toronto, a few days after receiving the alert from Apple. After verifying the credibility of The Citizen Lab with his contacts overseas, Mr. Murali allowed them to remotely access his phone. Through their investigation, it was determined that his phone had been on the Pegasus spyware list since August 2022.
