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Revelations by a consortium of media agencies that politicians, journalists and activists were potential targets of surveillance through Pegasus software of Israeli surveillance company NSO Group have triggered outrage around the globe.

While the world went into a tizzy, Israel has ordered a probe to review the allegations against NSO. However, NSO has claimed the list in public domain wasn't theirs.

NSO Group has maintained that the software was only sold to governments and not to private players. Ariela Ben Avraham, Global Communications Director, NSO Group told India Today, "We only sell to governments and law enforcement agencies. List of countries mentioned in the reports was not accurate."

Although NSO refused to reveal names of countries contracted with the company, they welcomed any kind of probe.

"We will welcome any probe initiated by the Israeli government. NSO is not related to the list published by Forbidden Stories; it never was an NSO list - it is fabricated information; a possible list of targets/potential targets is false information. NSO does not have access to data of people mentioned in the list," Avraham said.

It has been reported widely that the software sold by the Israeli surveillance company has been used by governments to snoop on individuals and entities having a divergent position from that of that country.

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WHAT UN, EU SAID ON PEGASUS SNOOPING ROW

The United Nations and the European Union are among a list of international organisations and countries that have condemned the acts by governments.

The UN Human Rights chief said the apparent widespread use of Pegasus spyware to illegally undermine the rights of those under surveillance was "extremely alarming" and confirmed "some of the worst fears" surrounding the potential misuse of such technology.

"Various parts of the UN Human Rights system, including my own Office, have repeatedly raised serious concerns about the dangers of authorities using surveillance tools from a variety of sources supposed to promote public safety in order to hack the phones and computers of people conducting legitimate journalistic activities, monitoring human rights or expressing dissent or political opposition," High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

The UN Human Rights High Commissioner said that a "red line" was crossed by the use of the Pegasus spyware by state actors and termed it "completely unacceptable".

"Freedom of media, free press is one of the core values of the EU. It is completely unacceptable if this (hacking) were to be the case," said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Prague.

"What we could read so far, and this has to be verified, but if it is the case, it is completely unacceptable. Against any kind of rules we have in the European Union," Urusula von der Leyen said.

While most affected nations have been cautious with their response, saying they do not discuss security protocols, this could impact bilateral relations between nations if the forensic reports prove snooping.

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WHICH COUNTRIES ARE ON PEGASUS SPYWARE LIST

According to the consortium's analysis of the leaked data, at least 10 governments are believed to be NSO customers who were entering numbers into a system: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Analysis of the data suggests the phone numbers that were selected, possibly ahead of a surveillance attack, spanned more than 45 countries across four continents.

WHAT DID AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SAY ON PEGASUS ROW

While the NSO Group has rejected the list, Amnesty International said it stood by the Pegasus spyware list contrary to inaccurate media stories in relation to the project.

They said that the rumours were false and intended to distract from the widespread unlawful targeting.

"Amnesty International categorically stands by the findings of the Pegasus Project, and that the data is irrefutably linked to potential targets of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. The false rumours being pushed on social media are intended to distract from the widespread unlawful targeting of journalists, activists and others that the Pegasus Project has revealed," Amnesty International said in a statement.

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HOW AFFECTED COUNTRIES REACTED TO PEGASUS ROW

France has already ordered an investigation and said it would sue countries actively involved in spying on their nationals. French President Macron convened an emergency meeting on Thursday to discuss reports that his cellphone and those of top officials might have been targeted by the spyware.

Some others like Hungary and India have already denied these allegations.

Peter Szijjarto, Hungarian Foreign Minister said, "I am unaware of any such data collection, and I have never been aware of it."

Speaking to the media he added, "The technical tool, let's call it software, is not used by the Information Office and the agency did not make any agreement of using it."

Reports said the leak contained a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers which, it is believed, have been identified as those of people of interest by clients of NSO since 2016.

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Pegasus row: United Nations to European Union, here is how the world reacted - India Today