Police forces around the world are increasingly using hacking tools to identify and track protesters, expose political dissidents' secrets, and turn activists' computers and phones into eavesdroppers. A hacking campaign that used those tools to go an appalling step further, planting false incriminating files on targets' computers, is connected to a case in India.
More than a year ago, forensic analysts revealed that hacker made up evidence on the computers of at least two activists arrested in India last year and are currently in jail. A broader hacking operation that targeted hundreds of individuals over nearly a decade has been linked to the evidence fabrication by researchers at the security firm. The same Indian police agency that arrested multiple activists based on fabricated evidence is the same one that has ties to the hackers.
They aren't going after terrorists. Human rights defenders and journalists are going to be targeted. It isn't right.
A worker at an email provider gave evidence to the police.
There is a provable connection between the people who arrested the people and the people who planted the evidence, according to a security researcher who will present findings at the Black Hat security conference. This is not ethical. It is not right. We want to give as much data as we can in order to help the victims.
Two of the targets of the hacking campaign are Rona Wilson and Varvara Rao, which is why the company has called the modified elephant campaign. Both men are activists and human rights defenders who were jailed in India last year as part of a group called the Bhima Koregaon 16. The Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in jail after contracting Covid-19. An 81-year-old man who is in poor health has been freed on medical bail. Only one of the others has been granted bail.
The contents of Wilson's laptop were analyzed by a digital forensics firm on behalf of the defendants. Evidence had been fabricated on both machines. The piece of software known as NetWire added 32 files to a folder of the computer's hard drive, including a letter in which Wilson appeared to be conspiring with a banned Maoist group to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The letter was created with a version of Microsoft Word that Wilson had never used. Wilson's computer was hacked to install NetWire, after he opened an attachment from Varvara Rao's email account, which had itself been compromised by the same hackers. Mark Spencer wrote in his report to the Indian court that the case was one of the most serious he had ever seen.
The two cases of evidence fabrication that were analyzed were part of a larger pattern that the hackers had targeted hundreds of activists, journalists, and lawyers. According to the report, the activities of the Modified Elephant hackers align with Indian state interests, but they didn't identify any individuals or organizations.
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