{"id":35707,"date":"2019-11-15T18:49:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T18:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iissonline.net\/2026\/?p=35707"},"modified":"2019-11-15T18:49:48","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T18:49:48","slug":"the-rise-of-pegasus-and-why-india-should-know-the-problem-with-hiring-internet-mercenaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iissonline.net\/2026\/the-rise-of-pegasus-and-why-india-should-know-the-problem-with-hiring-internet-mercenaries\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise of Pegasus and why India should know the problem with hiring \u2018internet mercenaries\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Opinion The rise of Pegasus and why India should know the problem with hiring \u2018internet mercenaries\u2019 Pegasus, the spyware behind India\u2019s WhatsApp snooping incident, has been used in over 45 countries&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>You must be logged in to view this content.<\/p>\n<h3>Click here to <a href=\"\/register\">register<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Opinion The rise of Pegasus and why India should know the problem with hiring \u2018internet mercenaries\u2019 Pegasus, the spyware behind India\u2019s WhatsApp snooping incident, has been used in over 45 countries&hellip; You must be logged in to view this content. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/iissonline.net\/2026\/the-rise-of-pegasus-and-why-india-should-know-the-problem-with-hiring-internet-mercenaries\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131481,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,22,148],"tags":[54,120,61],"class_list":["post-35707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-companies","category-intelligence","category-israel","tag-comapnies","tag-intelligence","tag-israel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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