Mexico investigates legality of Israeli NSO Group spyware purchases
The Mexican attorney general's office says judicial authorities had acquired information that NSO was illegally selling Pegasus, without providing further details.
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The NSO Group company logo (Getty Images)
On Sunday, the Mexican attorney general's office revealed that it is investigating the previous administration's purchase of Pegasus computer spyware and if it was done correctly.
The office issued a statement referring to ongoing investigations into the use of Pegasus spyware by two people, including a prominent ex-official, just days after the current administration denied eavesdropping on journalists or critics.
Pegasus is owned and run by the Israeli spyware company NSO group, which only sells malware to governments or law enforcement agencies.
According to the statement, Mexican prosecutors are considering purchasing Pegasus from the previous attorney general's office for 457 million pesos ($23 million). They were attempting to determine whether it had been done with proper justification and in accordance with the required public tender procedures.
In the second investigation, the office stated that judicial authorities had acquired information that NSO was "illegally selling" Pegasus, but provided no further specifics.
NSO told Reuters earlier this month that it licenses Pegasus only to law enforcement and intelligence organizations of sovereign states and government agencies with Israeli government authorization, claiming that contracts are terminated when misconduct is discovered.
It claimed it that does not operate Pegasus, has no visibility on its usage, and does not collect information about customers.
The admission came nearly two weeks after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador denied his personnel spied on journalists or opponents following a watchdog report claiming at least three people probing human rights violations in Mexico had Pegasus on their phones.
Lopez Obrador was elected in 2018 after promising during his campaign that the government would stop eavesdropping on its citizens.
What is Pegasus? How does it function?
As spyware, Pegasus, which has the capability to infect billions of phones running either iOS or Android operating systems, silently infiltrates your phone, takes hold of your data, and turns your device into a 24/7 surveillance unit.
It can copy all your messages, harvest your photos, and record your calls. It might even infiltrate your camera and microphone and secretly film you and eavesdrop on your conversations. It can also potentially pinpoint your location, anytime, anywhere.
For governments and spying agencies, the software is quite the dream come true, but for dissidents, journalists, and the general populace, Pegasus is a nightmare.
The mastermind behind this hacking software is none other than the Israeli firm NSO Group.
Mexico, Pegasus, and human rights activists
Two journalists and a human rights activist's phones were examined by researchers at Citizen Lab, a digital watchdog group at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. They discovered that the smartphones had been infected with Pegasus in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The three victims documented human rights violations allegedly committed by the Mexican armed forces and disclosed their findings in a report published by the Mexican group for digital rights advocacy known as R3D.
Requests for a response from the Defense Ministry and Lopez Obrador's team were not immediately fulfilled.
