· 2019-11-29 · page 3 crackias.com the android version of pegasus spyware is called chrysaor...

In WhatsApp breach, follow the money trail 2

Explained 5

Security compromised 7

Changing the status quo 10

WhatsApp gets watchful 13

India’s requests for Facebook user data increases by 37%, second only to U.S. 14

The Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019 16

Index

crac

kIAS.co

m

Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2019-11-02

IN WHATSAPP BREACH, FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAILRelevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in internal security

challenges

On October 30, multiple Indian media publications revealed that a spyware called Pegasus(made by an Israeli firm, NSO) was used to compromise phones of multiple activists, journalistsand lawyers. The phones were reportedly compromised by using vulnerability in WhatsAppwhich allowed the Pegasus spyware software to be installed in a target’s phone by initiating aWhatsApp voice call with the target. Once installed, the spyware is able to track the activities ofmultiple user applications in the target’s phone including messages, mails, audio calls, browserhistory, contacts, and so on. This also includes data (audio and text) that is exchanged via end-to-end encrypted systems such as WhatsApp. This specific vulnerability in WhatsApp has nowbeen patched.

WhatsApp has now filed a lawsuit against the Israeli firm in a U.S. federal court in SanFrancisco, alleging that the Israeli group had targeted WhatsApp users and is seeking apermanent injunction banning NSO from using its service. NSO disputed the allegations levelledby WhatsApp and said in a statement that the sole purpose of NSO was to provide technology tolicensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism andserious crime. After it was revealed that Indian citizens were spied upon using Pegasus, theIndian government has sought an explanation from WhatsApp by November 4. There was alsomuch outrage on social media with questions being asked of the Indian government and calls toboycott WhatsApp.

While the government has tried to shift the focus to WhatsApp, it is misleading the population atlarge by doing so. To understand this aspect, one needs to first understand how Pegasusexactly works and how it is able to track every activity on a target’s phone, and how WhatsApp isnot the only gateway for Pegasus. In July and August 2016, there were multiple attempts toinfect the phone of a Mexican health researcher with Pegasus by sending repeated messagesthat were emotionally stirring. These messages claimed various things such as his daughter hadmet with an accident with a link to the hospital she was admitted to, or that his wife was cheatingon him with a link to a supposedly leaked photo. In all cases, the links were essentially exploitlinks, clicking on which would have installed Pegasus on the target’s phone. In fact, Citizen Labwhich has investigated several cases of Pegasus infections around the world, including the onesin India, has shown through its research as to how social engineering is a very common strategyto deliver the most sophisticated spyware.

So, how is Pegasus able to spy on every aspect of your phone? Pegasus does so by exploitingvulnerabilities in the phone’s operating system. Smartphones have operating systems (OS)much like the desktops and laptops we use. While Android phones use a modified version of thefamous open source operating system Linux, iPhones use a mobile operating system called iOSwhich was created by Apple. Lookout, which is a cybersecurity company, had partnered withCitizen Lab to investigate the 2016 case and had found that the Pegasus software had exploitedthree zero-day vulnerabilities in iOS to successfully attain privileged user access of the phone. Azero-day vulnerability is a flaw in a software or hardware that is previously unknown to the partyresponsible, which in this case is Apple. In the specific case of 2016, upon clicking on the link,the Pegasus software was first able to exploit a vulnerability in the Safari browser which is thedefault browser in an iPhone, and then execute a Stage 2 code which was able to jailbreak thetarget’s iPhone to gain privileged user access. In the present case with WhatsApp, a speciallycrafted call was used to trigger a buffer overflow, which in turn was used to take control of thedevice.

crac

kIAS.co

m

The Android version of Pegasus spyware is called Chrysaor Malware and was found on aboutthree dozen devices in 2017 according to a blog by Google. The Android version of Pegasusinstalls as an application on your phone, and uses a known root technique called framaroot.Rooting an Android phone enables one to get privileged user (root) access, and thus allowingthe spyware to monitor various activities.

From social engineering to exploiting user apps such as WhatsApp or Safari and then eventuallyusing the vulnerabilities in the underlying mobile operating system, NSO employs varioustechniques to target and take control of a user’s phone. The Google Play Store and the AppleApp store house thousands of apps, many of which could have undiscovered vulnerabilities, andcould potentially be exploited by firms such as NSO to target individual users. Thus, we arebarking up the wrong tree by focusing solely on WhatsApp. However, when an application likeWhatsApp, the most used chat app, has a serious vulnerability, then the impact is much morewidespread.

From a user point of view, to ensure security of your devices, it is important to keep phonesupdated — both the applications and the firmware. Many smartphone users often disableautomatic updates in order to save on data, but this also prevents security updates from beinginstalled on the phones. It is extremely important to be self-aware about one’s digital security, asa compromise in that could lead to a situation of total surveillance.

Finally, the question that needs to be asked is who in India can afford millions of dollars to targetphones of select individuals. Pegasus is a state-of-the-art spyware, and NSO charges anexorbitant sum for its product and services. According to a 2015 contract, between the NationalCommunications Authority of Ghana, Africa, NSO, and a local reseller, NSO was paid $8 millionfor the Pegasus spyware and associated services. Similarly, Mexican Federal agencies havereportedly purchased $80 million worth of spyware from NSO, from 2011 to 2017. As acompany, NSO has offered services to various clients, and helped them hack a victim’s phonethrough a variety of methods. The government needs to investigate who in India can afford tohire NSO and is interested in targeting select activists, lawyers and journalists, especially whenNSO itself claims that it sells the software only to government agencies. The usual whatabouteryabout this being an attempt to defame the government is not going to be enough this timearound.

Pratik Sinha is co-founder Alt News, and formerly a software engineer who worked over adecade in wireless and embedded systems

You have reached your limit for free articles this month.

Register to The Hindu for free and get unlimited access for 30 days.

Already have an account ? Sign in

Sign up for a 30-day free trial. Sign Up

Find mobile-friendly version of articles from the day's newspaper in one easy-to-read list.

Enjoy reading as many articles as you wish without any limitations.

A select list of articles that match your interests and tastes.

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=op-ed&utm_campaign=meterpaywall&#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=op-ed&utm_campaign=meterpaywall

crac

kIAS.co

m

Move smoothly between articles as our pages load instantly.

A one-stop-shop for seeing the latest updates, and managing your preferences.

We brief you on the latest and most important developments, three times a day.

*Our Digital Subscription plans do not currently include the e-paper ,crossword, iPhone, iPadmobile applications and print. Our plans enhance your reading experience.

Support quality journalism - Subscribe to The Hindu Digital

Please enter a valid email address.

How an idea for a ‘perfect Mumbai feature story’ failed to materialise

Subscribe to The Hindu now and get unlimited access.

Already have an account? Sign In


Support The Hindu's new online experience.

Already a user? Sign In

ENDDownloaded from crackIAS.com

© Zuccess App by crackIAS.com

https://subscription.thehindu.com/subscription?utm_source=article_tail&utm_medium=bottom&utm_campaign=subscription

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=signin&utm_campaign=subscription#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=signup&utm_campaign=subscription

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=adblocker&utm_medium=signin&utm_campaign=adblocker&#signin

crac

kIAS.co

m


EXPLAINEDRelevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in internal security

challenges

File | Photo Credit: REUTERS

In May 2019, WhatsApp identified that a bug in the app’s call function was used to install amalicious code into users’ phones. On October 29, it identified the malicious code as Pegasus, aspyware developed by an Israeli company, NSO. WhatsApp and its parent company Facebookhave sued NSO in a U.S. court.

The code is transmitted by calling the target phone on WhatsApp. The code enters the phoneeven if the call is not answered. According to some reports, the log of that call gets erased.According to The Citizen’s Lab of the University of Toronto, which worked with WhatsApp onidentifying spyware victims, this is only one of the ways of delivering Pegasus. It notes severalother cases such as alarming SMSs that prompt targets to click on a link

Once installed, Pegasus can send the target’s contacts, calendar events, phone calls on andmessages on communication apps like WhatsApp and Telegram to the spyware’s controller. Itcould steal messages from even services that offer encryption because it was taking themessages before the encryption process, according to anti-malware service Kaspersky. Thecontroller can also turn the phone into a spying device by switching on its camera ormicrophone.

According to reports, over 100 human-rights activists, lawyers, and journalists were targetedacross the globe. This included several lawyers and journalists in India.

According to Kaspersky, Apple’s iOS security update 9.3.5 take care of the vulnerabilityexploited by Pegasus. Google, in a earlier blogpost, says it identifies infected Android phonesand disable the malware and informs the targets.











https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/REUTERS/

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/whatsapp-discovers-spyware-that-infected-with-a-call-alone/article27124081.ece

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/whatsapp-sues-israeli-firm-nso-over-cyberespionage/article29828419.ece

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=technology&utm_campaign=meterpaywall&#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=technology&utm_campaign=meterpaywall

crac

kIAS.co

m




A drone-like flying taxi whirred over Singapore’s waterfront on October 22, with the firm behindthe test hoping the aircraft will revolutionise

Researchers at Google say they have achieved ‘quantum supremacy’. But when will quantumcomputing affect us?









https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=signin&utm_campaign=subscription#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=signup&utm_campaign=subscription


crac

kIAS.co

m


SECURITY COMPROMISEDRelevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Basics of Cyber Security and related matters

Photo illustration: AP

On October 28, a user on VirusTotal identified a DTrack data dump linked with the KudankulamNuclear Power Plant — indicating that a system (or more) in the plant had been breached bymalware. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) confirmed the breach, doing avolte-face after an initial denial. Separately, WhatsApp sued the Israel-based NSO Group for theuse of its ‘Pegasus’ spyware on thousands of WhatsApp users in the lead-up to the generalelections.

These two incidents cast serious doubts on the Indian state’s claims to being a legitimate powerin cyberspace, both due to the vulnerability of its critical information infrastructure and blatantdisregard for the fundamental rights of its citizens online. In essence, the government hassignalled that it has no qualms about weakening the security of civilian digital platforms, even asit fails to secure its strategic infrastructure from sophisticated cyberattacks.

On September 4, an independent cybersecurity expert informed the National Security Councilsecretariat about a potential malware attack on the Kudankulam Plant. The malware used wasidentified as DTrack, a signature of the North Korean hacker group, Lazarus. The NPCILclaimed that the malware hit a non-critical “administrative computer” that was connected to theInternet, but not to the Nuclear Power Plant Control System. However, there is no clearindication what the said system contained, and whether valuable information stored in it could beharvested for more complex spear-phishing attacks against the NPCIL in the future.

As for Pegasus, it appears that over a two-week period in May 2019, an as-yet unknown numberof Indian journalists, academics and activists were among those targeted by a governmentagency using Israeli spyware bought off the shelf. Following a lawsuit, the NSO Group, theIsraeli company that created the spyware, released a statement claiming that it licenses itsproduct “only to vetted and legitimate government agencies”. There are but a handful ofagencies that are authorised under the Information Technology Act, 2000 to intercept, monitorand decrypt data. Should the fingers point to the National Technical Research Organisation, thecountry’s foremost TECHINT gathering agency?

There are three glaring issues highlighted by these cases. First, contrary to what the NPCIL mayclaim, air-gapped systems are not invulnerable. Stuxnet crossed an air gap, crippled Iran’snuclear centrifuges and even spread across the world to computers in India’s criticalinfrastructure facilities. It is also not enough to suggest that some systems are less important orcritical than others — a distributed and closed network is only as strong as its weakest link.Second, with the Indian military announcing that it will modernise its nuclear forces, which mayinclude the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence and other cybercapabilities, the apparentabsence of robust cybersecurity capability is a serious cause for concern. If it cannot secureeven the outer layer of networks linking its nuclear plants, what hope does the government haveof inducting advanced technologies into managing their security?

Third, the surveillance of Indian citizens through WhatsApp spyware in the lead-up to thegeneral elections highlights once again the government’s disregard for cybersecurity. It is in linewith the government’s ceaseless attempts at enforcing the “traceability” of end-to-end encryptedmessages on WhatsApp. A backdoor, once opened, is available to any actor — good or bad. Touse it without oversight belies reckless disregard for the integrity of electronic information.

crac

kIAS.co

m

Ironically, these instances point out to a weakening of India’s cybersovereignty: the governmentcomes across as incapable of protecting its most critical installations and, by rendering digitalplatforms susceptible to spyware, limiting its own agency to prosecute and investigatecybercrime These incidents also fly in the face of the country’s claims to being a responsiblepower as a member of export control regimes such as the Wassenaar Arrangement. Thepossibility of such misuse of intrusion technologies is a frequent argument deployed byadvanced economies to keep developing countries out of elite clubs.

If the Indian state plans to leverage offensive and defensive cybercapabilities, which are ofcourse its right as a sovereign power, it needs to get serious about cybersecurity, both for itsown narrow, political interests as well as those of its citizenry. There cannot be piecemeal,horses-for-courses approach: “security by obscurity” for India’s nuclear power plants, andcutting-edge malware reserved for spying on citizens. The security of a billion hand-held devicesare of equal strategic value to the country’s nuclear assets. Only in this case, the governmenthas been found wanting on the security of both.

Trisha Ray is a Junior Fellow at ORF’s Cyber Initiative


















https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=29902158&utm_campaign=op-ed&#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=29902158&utm_campaign=op-ed


https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=29902158&utm_campaign=op-ed#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=29902158&utm_campaign=op-ed

crac

kIAS.co

m






crac

kIAS.co

m


CHANGING THE STATUS QUORelevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Various Security Forces & Agencies and their mandate

Woman power A women’s contingent of Assam Rifles marching on the Rajpath in New Delhiduring the 70th Republic Day parade. | Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

The Ministry of Home Affairs has proposed that the Assam Rifles should be merged with theIndo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and serve under the operational control of the MHA. Atpresent, the Assam Rifles, a Central paramilitary force, is under the administrative control of theMHA and operational control of the Army, i.e. the Ministry of Defence. The Army is opposed tothis proposal.

Formed as Cachar Levy in 1835 to assist the British rulers in maintaining peace in theNortheast, the Assam Rifles, which had just about 750 men, proved its capability and efficiency.This necessitated its expansion. The unit was converted into the Assam Military Police Battalionwith two additional battalions in 1870. They were known as the Lushai Hills Battalion, LakhimpurBattalion and Naga Hills Battalion. Just before World War I, another battalion, the DarrangBattalion, was added. They all rendered great service by assisting the British in Europe andWest Asia during the war. These battalions were then renamed Assam Rifles. They continued tobe regular armed police battalions, but with the ‘Rifles’ tag, which was a matter of honour fortheir competence, on par with any regular Army battalion.

It was after the Chinese aggression in 1962 in Arunachal Pradesh that the Assam Riflesbattalions were placed under the operational control of the Army. Assam Rifles personnel whowere acclimatised to the region were better suited for operations then. It needs to beremembered that one of the major causes for India’s defeat was the fact that the regular Armyunits were not used to the extreme weather. The decision taken then was in keeping with therequirements. This is not the case any more.

All Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) are acclimatised to almost every region of the countrynow due to country-wide deployment of all CAPF battalions. The operational role performed bythe ITBP at 18,700 feet in Ladakh is testimony enough to its capability to guard the border in anypart of the country. It needs to be noted that back in 2001, the Group of Ministers had stated thatthe principle of ‘One Border, One Force’ should be strictly adhered to. If ITBP can guard theIndia-China border in Ladakh, there is no reason why it cannot guard the India-China border inArunachal Pradesh and beyond.

The concept of having two masters for an organisation — one for administrative control andanother for operational control — is not only absurd but also leads to problems of coordination.Therefore, the Home Ministry’s move to merge all its 55,000-strong Assam Rifles with the ITBPis a step in the right direction.

The Army argues that the Assam Rifles should be merged with it, to ensure national security. Itrequires no wisdom to conclude that the Army would lose its promotional avenues once thisparamilitary force is merged with the ITBP, as it would be directly under the control of the HomeMinistry. At present, nearly 80% of officers’ ranks from Major upwards are held by Army officerson deputation. A Lieutenant General of the Army holds the post of Director General of AssamRifles. It is natural for the Army to oppose the move.

For the time being, the Chief may be appointed from among IPS officers. But for the tusslebetween the IPS and the CAPF officers, consequent to the CAPF being brought under the fold

https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/Sandeep-Saxena/

crac

kIAS.co

m

of Organised Group ‘A’ Service this year, it would be the direct officers of Assam Rifles who willeventually take up the top posts.

The Home Ministry, under Rajnath Singh, took up the issue of merger with the CabinetCommittee on Security (CCS). The matter is in the Delhi High Court now after retired personnelfiled a petition saying they were facing difficulties in drawing pension because of dual control.The merger issue needs to be taken up on priority by the CCS so that doubts are cleared. Themodalities of absorbing the officers should be worked out to stall any situation of a vacuumbeing created once the deputationists are repatriated to the Army.

M.P. Nathanael is Inspector General of Police (Retd), CRPF




















END

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=29911945&utm_campaign=op-ed&#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=29911945&utm_campaign=op-ed


https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=29911945&utm_campaign=op-ed#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=29911945&utm_campaign=op-ed


crac

kIAS.co

m

Downloaded from crackIAS.com


crac

kIAS.co

m

Source : www.livemint.com Date : 2019-11-14

WHATSAPP GETS WATCHFULRelevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in internal security

challenges

The Facebook-owned messaging app has recently taken to banning users globally if they arefound to be part of group chats with malicious or suspicious names, in some cases permanently

If you are a part of multiple group chats on WhatsApp, you might want to check if they are stillaround, and more importantly, that none of them has an ugly name. The Facebook-ownedmessaging app has recently taken to banning users globally if they are found to be part of groupchats with malicious or suspicious names, in some cases permanently. WhatsApp, which wasrecently in the eye of a spyware storm, has been under pressure for a while to address theproblem of its platform being used to spread ill will.

In 2017, a string of mob lynchings and other killings was traced to rumours related to organharvesting and child abduction that spread through the app. Among other things, the strict newpolicy is aimed at curbing child exploitation. WhatsApp said on its official blog earlier this yearthat the service relies on end-to-end encryption and advanced machine learning toidentify—without accessing any messages—and ban users circulating “Child ExploitativeImagery".

However, what might qualify as “malicious" or “suspicious" remains unclear. Child pornographyis easy to spot. But other messages and posts that do society damage are not so easilyidentifiable by the name of a group chat. Some chats have bizarre names just as pranks. WhileWhatsApp could argue that it has no way of seeing what actually gets passed around on chats,since all data is encrypted end-to-end, we should not have the absurdity of truly dangerous stuffgetting away even as harmless names get busted. But then again, some action is better thannone.

Log in to our website to save your bookmarks. It'll just take a moment.

Your session has expired, please login again.

You are now subscribed to our newsletters. In case you can’t find any email from our side,please check the spam folder.



crac

kIAS.co

m


INDIA’S REQUESTS FOR FACEBOOK USER DATAINCREASES BY 37%, SECOND ONLY TO U.S.

Relevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Role of Media and Social Networking Sites in internal securitychallenges

File | Photo Credit: AFP

The Indian government’s requests for user data from Facebook increased nearly 37% in the firsthalf of 2019, and at 22,684 queries, was the second highest globally, according to theTransparency Report of the U.S.-based social networking site.

In comparison, Facebook received 16,580 requests in the January-June 2018 period and 20,805requests during July-December that year. Of the 22,684 data requests, Facebook said it hadproduced some data in 54% of cases. “Facebook responds to government requests for data inaccordance with applicable law and our terms of service. Each and every request we receive iscarefully reviewed for legal sufficiency and we may reject or require greater specificity onrequests that appear overly broad or vague,” the company said.

Globally, it received 1,28,617 such requests from governments. Of these, Facebook producedsome data for 73.6% of cases. The US government submitted the maximum number of 50,714requests for details of 82,461 Facebook users/accounts during the first half of the current year.The US was followed by India, whose 22,684 requests were for 33,324 users/accounts, the UK(7,721 requests for 10,550 user/accounts), Germany (7,302 requests on 9,800 users/accounts)and France (5,782 requests for 6,961 users/accounts).

The report showed that during January-June 2019, Facebook had nearly 70 internet disruptionsthat affected its products in about 17 countries. India topped the list with 40 disruptions.However, as far as total duration of disruptions was concerned, India came in at number twowith eight weeks, 2 days and 22 hours.

During the period reviewed, the social media giant also restricted access to 1,233 items ofcontent, including 1,211 posts, two profiles, 19 pages and groups and one comment. “Wepermanently restricted access to content in India in response to legal requests from lawenforcement agencies, court orders, and the Ministry of Electronics and InformationTechnology,” the company said.

The content restricted was alleged to have violated laws and primarily in the categories of hatespeech, anti-religious content constituting incitement to violence, defamation, extremism, anti-government, and anti-state content. “We also restricted access to 217 items in response toprivate reports related to defamation,” it said. Temporary access restriction was applied to 448items in response to reports received from the Election Commission of India alleging that thecontent was subject to election blackout periods.





https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/AFP/

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=29975854&utm_campaign=internet&#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=meterpaywall&utm_medium=29975854&utm_campaign=internet

crac

kIAS.co

m








Why you should pay for quality journalism - Click to know more


Data compliance issues and regulations have kept WhatsApp Pay launch in abeyance for quitesome time, despite a successful test run of the payments service with one million users in thecountry

According to Limelight Networks’ ‘State of Online Video 2019’ research report, time spent onbinge-watching is on the rise in India, jumping more than 23 per cent from last year to anaverage of 2 hours and 25 minutes at a time







https://subscription.thehindu.com//whypayfornews?utm_source=hindu&utm_medium=articlebottom&utm_campaign=whypay

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=29975854&utm_campaign=internet#signin

https://subscription.thehindu.com/signup?utm_source=curtainraiser&utm_medium=29975854&utm_campaign=internet

crac

kIAS.co

m

Source : www.prsindia.org Date : 2019-11-27

THE SPECIAL PROTECTION GROUP (AMENDMENT)BILL, 2019

Relevant for: Security Related Matters | Topic: Various Security Forces & Agencies and their mandate

The Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in Lok Sabha by theMinister of Home Affairs, Mr. Amit Shah, on November 25, 2019. The Bill amends theSpecial Protections Group Act, 1988. The Act provides for the constitution and regulation ofthe Special Protection Group (SPG) to provide security to the Prime Minister, former PrimeMinisters, and their immediate family members.

●

Under the Act, the SPG provides security to the Prime Minister and his immediate familymembers. It also provides security to former Prime Ministers and their immediate familymembers for a period of one year from the date on which they cease to hold the office. Beyond this period, the SPG security is provided based on the level of threat as decided bythe central government. The threat must: (i) emanate from a military or terroristorganisation, and (ii) be of a grave and continuing nature.

●

The Bill amends this provision to state that the SPG will provide security to the PrimeMinister, and members of his immediate family residing with him at his official residence. Itwill also provide security to any former Prime Ministers, and his immediate family membersresiding with him at the residence allotted to him. This security will be provided for a periodof five years from the date on which he ceases to hold the office of Prime Minister.

●

The Act provides that if the SPG security is withdrawn from a former Prime Minister, it willalso be withdrawn from his immediate family members, unless the level of threat faced bythe immediate family member warrants such security. The Bill removes this condition tostate that if the SPG security is withdrawn from a former Prime Minister, it will also bewithdrawn from his immediate family members.

●

The Act provides that any former Prime Minister, or any immediate family member of thePrime Minister or a former Prime Minister may decline SPG security. The Bill deletes thisprovision.

●

DISCLAIMER: This document is being furnished to you for your information. You may choose to reproduce orredistribute this report for non-commercial purposes in part or in full to any other person with dueacknowledgement of PRS Legislative Research (“PRS”). The opinions expressed herein are entirely those ofthe author(s). PRS makes every effort to use reliable and comprehensive information, but PRS does notrepresent that the contents of the report are accurate or complete. PRS is an independent, not-for-profitgroup. This document has been prepared without regard to the objectives or opinions of those who mayreceive it.



· 2019-11-29 · page 3 crackias.com the android version of pegasus spyware is called chrysaor...

Documents