Mexico used Israeli Spyware Pegasus to Surveil President’s Family & a Murdered Journalist

[enhanced_deficit]

Mexico Used Private Israeli Spyware Pegasus to Surveil President’s Family & a Murdered Journalist

July 20, 2021

Mexico appears to have submitted more phone numbers for potential surveillance to the Israeli cybersurveillance company NSO Group than any other client country, according to an investigation of the company by an international collaboration of media outlets called The Pegasus Project. The Guardian found the mobile phone number of Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto was selected as a possible target for surveillance by a Mexican NSO Group client just weeks before Pineda’s assassination in Guerrero in 2017. Nina Lakhani, senior reporter at The Guardian, says Mexico was NSO Group’s first client and authorities there have a long record of “dire human rights abuses.” She notes Mexico’s use of Pegasus proves the technology is not only used to go after criminality. “The line between good and bad in Mexico is blurred,” Lakhani says.
democracynow.org/2021/7/20/nso_group_surveillance_mexico


Last MX Prez Enrique Peña Nieto has acknowledged that his government had bought the Israeli-made spyware Pegasus.
Incidentally, Mr. Peña Nieto had also given Mexico's highest award to Prez Trump son in law Kushner for helping Mexico renegotiate NAFTA deal with US. There is no MSM report indicating that first minority First Son-in-law in US history also helped facilitate sale of these spyware tools.

Mexicans stunned: Their ousted president just gave Jared Kushner their nation’s greatest award


The Order of the Aztec Eagle, issued by Mexico to foreigners who make a significant contribution to the country

Tue November 27, 2018
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto will bestow Mexico's highest honor for foreigners on Jared Kushner on Friday in Buenos Aires, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.
The Order of the Aztec is Mexico's highest honor for foreigners and Kushner will receive it for his role in coordinating US-Mexico relations since President Donald Trump came into office, in particular his role in helping to renegotiate the NAFTA free trade agreement.
cnn.com/2018/11/27/polit...nor/index.html


Current MX Prez , who was reportedly among victins of these hacks, is not happy:


‘Shameful’: Mexican president decries alleged NSO spying

Some 15,000 Mexican cellphones appeared on the leaked list of surveillance, at least 50 people close to president.

Mexican President Andres Lopez Obrador's wife, children, brother and even his cardiologist were among those selected for potential surveillance using Pegasus malware between 2016 and 2017

20 Jul 2021

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday called “shameful” the alleged government-ordered spying several years ago that may have targeted him and his close allies and added that his government did not spy on anyone.
British newspaper The Guardian reported on Monday that at least 50 people close to Lopez Obrador, among many others, were potentially targeted by the previous administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto after it purchased Pegasus spying software from Israel-based NSO Group.

Mexican journalist Marcela Turati appeared on the leaked list. She believes the monitoring of journalists is ongoing.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has long railed against his predecessor’s record, saying it was rife with corruption and abuses. [File: Fernando Llano/AP Photo] “Almost all journalists in Mexico know and feel that we are under some kind of surveillance,” Turati told AFP.
“It’s something that is assumed, especially because Mexico is among the most dangerous countries to practice the profession,” she said.
At the time that Turati appears to have been targeted through NSO, she and two colleagues were investigating the corruption scandal engulfing Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht.
Lopez Obrador has long railed against his predecessor’s record, saying it was rife with corruption and abuses. He said on Tuesday that if the Pegasus contract was still active it must be canceled.
The list, first accessed by the French nonprofit journalist outlet Forbidden Stories and advocacy group Amnesty International, was shared with The Guardian and more than a dozen other news outlets.

One of the Mexican journalists on the list was murdered in 2017 after criticising alleged links between politicians and criminals.
Cecilio Pineda was one of more than 100 journalists murdered since 2000 in Mexico, one of the world’s deadliest countries for reporters.
Lopez Obrador’s wife, children, brother and even his cardiologist were among those selected for potential surveillance using Pegasus malware between 2016 and 2017, according to Aristegui Noticias, a group of investigative journalists based in Mexico.

The leaked list of smartphone numbers did not include Lopez Obrador himself, according to Aristegui Noticias.
The left-wing leader “apparently did not use a personal cellphone” and communicated through his aides, it said.
Mexican agencies that have acquired the spyware include the defence ministry, the attorney general’s office and the national security intelligence service, it added.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, cabinet ministers and other officials of the current government were also identified as potential targets.
At the time, Lopez Obrador was the opposition leader and political rival of Pena Nieto.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, cabinet ministers and other officials of the current government were also identified as potential targets, Aristegui Noticias said.
There was a “persecutory practice of political espionage used by the old regime”, Sheinbaum told Aristegui Noticias, whose director Carmen Aristegui also appears to have been targeted.
aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/20/shameful-mexican-president-decries-alleged-nso-spying


Likely Un-Related

Congressman Joaquin Castro accuses Trump son-in-law Kushner of orchestrating killing of Washington Post columnist

10/19/18
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) on Friday accused senior White House adviser Jared Kushner of orchestrating the killing of Saudi-born Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Related

Prior to his murder, Jamal Khashoggi offered to help 9/11 victims suing Saudi Arabia
news.yahoo.com
Jul 10, 2021

9/11 families ask judge to withhold witness names in lawsuit in fear of Saudi retaliation
Mike Kelly | NorthJersey.com
northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/mike-kelly/2020/03/04/9-11-families-ask-judge-withhold-witness-ids-fear-saudi-retaliation/4869074002/

Khashoggi's friends, family targeted by Saudi, UAE using Israel spyware, data leak reveals
July 19, 2021
middleeastmonitor.com/20210719-khashoggis-friends-family-targeted-by-saudi-uae-using-israel-spyware-date-leak-reveals/

Report: Israeli government okayed NSO's Pegasus sale to Saudis
3 hours ago

[enhanced_deficit]

Mexico says officials spent $61 million on Pegasus spyware

World Jul 28, 2021 6:14 PM EDT MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s top security official said Wednesday that two previous administrations spent $61 million to buy Pegasus spyware that has been implicated in government surveillance of opponents and journalists around the world.
Public Safety Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez said records had been found of 31 contracts signed during the administrations of President Felipe Calderón in 2006-2012 and President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012-18. Some contracts may have been disguised as purchases of other equipment.

pbs.org/newshour/world/mexico-says-officials-spent-61-million-on-pegasus-spyware

[enhanced_deficit]

After Massive Global Fallout, Apple Sues Israeli Spyware Maker NSO For Infecting iPhones

Apple accused NSO Group, the Israeli surveillance company, of “flagrant” violations of its software, as well as federal and state laws.

Nov. 23, 2021
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple sued the NSO Group, the Israeli surveillance company, in federal court on Tuesday, another setback for the beleaguered firm and the unregulated spyware industry.
The lawsuit is the second of its kind — Facebook sued NSO in 2019 for targeting its WhatsApp users — and another consequential move by a private company to curb invasive spyware by governments and the companies that provide their spy tools.
Apple, for the first time, seeks to hold NSO accountable for what it says was the surveillance and targeting of Apple users. Apple also wants to permanently prevent NSO from using any Apple software, services or devices, a move that could render the company’s Pegasus spyware product worthless, given that its core business is to give government clients full access to a target’s iPhone or Android smartphone.
Apple is also asking for unspecified damages for the time and cost to deal with what the company argues is NSO’s abuse of its products. Apple said it would donate the proceeds from those damages to organizations that exposed spyware.

Since NSO’s founding in 2010, its executives have said they sell spyware to governments only for lawful interception, but a series of revelations by journalists and private researchers have shown the extent to which governments have deployed NSO’s Pegasus spyware against journalists, activists and dissidents.
Apple executives described the lawsuit as a warning shot to NSO and other spyware makers. “This is Apple saying: If you do this, if you weaponize our software against innocent users, researchers, dissidents, activists or journalists, Apple will give you no quarter,” Ivan Krstic, head of Apple security engineering and architecture, said in an interview on Monday.