Thread by @free_thinker

[Thread]

Do listen to this 41 second clip, and I'll try and answer a few questions that were raised by @bhupendrachaube in his conversation with @MichaelKugelman.

1/n

Chaube: I searched Twitter, could not find a handle called Amnesty Forensics Department or Amnesty Forensics Lab.

Yes, because the handle is called @AmnestyTech, and has been around since 2016. [I can give a quick tutorial to folks at India Ahead as to how to use Google.]

2/n

Chaube: How has all of this suddenly appeared?

No, it hasn't suddenly appeared. Amnesty has published previous stories detailing how NSO+Pegasus has been used against human rights defenders. This is a story from 2019.

amnesty.org/en/latest/rese…

3/n

Chaube: Do we take all the claims of Amnesty on face value?

No, no one should. Chaube could opt for a pay cut and hire an expert and attempt to understand what the investigation is about.

In the next few tweets, I'll try and provide a gist of it.

4/n

The methodology of the investigation has been documented at the following link by Amnesty:

amnesty.org/en/latest/rese…

The investigation has been peer-reviewed by Citizen Lab of University of Toronto.

citizenlab.ca/2021/07/amnest…

5/n

Amnesty's methodology, among other things, details how iPhone's iMessage app was exploited through zero-click attacks. That Amnesty's findings are sound is further validated by Apple's statement where they accept that their phones were indeed hacked.

washingtonpost.com/technology/202…

6/n

The Amnesty methodology documents more such attack vectors, beyond the iMessage exploit. A suspicious process called 'bh' is a prominent part of this investigation. The same was found by security firm Lookout and Citizen Lab.

7/n

The least Indian media could do is make a credible effort to cross-check the findings and get technical experts to talk about the technical parts of this investigation.

8/8