In compliance with a Delhi court order, news agency Reuters has temporarily taken down an article about an Indian information technology firm that allegedly stole data from prominent individuals across the world.
The agency, however, asserted that it stands by the report and plans to appeal against the order.
The article, titled “How an Indian startup hacked the world”, was published on November 16 and taken down on December 5.
It alleged that New Delhi-based information technology company Appin carried out large-scale hacking and stole data from political leaders, international executives and attorneys. The article described the company’s work as “a sprawling cyber-mercenary operation that extended across the world”.
On December 4, an additional district judge in Delhi’s Rohini Court said that on a preliminary reading, he was satisfied that the article was “indicative of defamation” and should not be retained on the Reuters website. However, he said that the news website would get the opportunity to express its views on the matter.
Reuters, while announcing that it was temporarily removing the article, said that the report was “based on interviews with hundreds of people, thousands of documents, and research from several cybersecurity firms”.
The Delhi court will hear the case next on January 23.
What did the article say?
The article said that Appin, run by brothers Rajat Khare and Anuj Khare, started off as a small educational startup but went on to train “a generation of spies for hire” who continue to be active in the domain.
The Reuters report alleged that Appin provided cyberespionage services to private investigators who worked for large businesses, law firms and wealthy individuals. It cited at least 17 pitch documents that claimed that the company had expertise in “cyber spying”, “email monitoring” and “social engineering”.
The article said: “In one 2010 presentation, the company explicitly bragged about hacking businessmen on behalf of corporate clients”.
However, law firm Clare Locke, which represents Rajat Khare in the United States, said that its client never operated or supported any illegal “hack-for-hire” industry. It claimed that under Khare’s tenure, Appin trained students in cybersecurity, robotics and artificial intelligence but never in illegal hacking.
The law firm claimed that Rajat Khare had never seen the 2010 presentation that spoke of Appin’s expertise in hacking services. “The document is a forgery or was doctored,” Reuters quoted Clare Locke as saying.
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