The written report — "Government Spy: Systematic monitoring of journalists as well as human rights defenders inward Mexico" — United Arab Emirates terminal year.
Pegasus is i of the NSO group's nearly advanced mobile spyware tool that tin shipping away infiltrate Android, equally good equally iPhones to monitor calls, texts, email, contacts, as well as calendars, equally good equally purpose the phone's microphone as well as photographic telly camera for surveillance, turning a target’s smartphone into a sophisticated bugging device.
According to the report, the targets had received over 76 messages alongside links to the Pegasus exploit along alongside uniquely crafted social engineering messages, "troubling personal as well as sexual taunts, messages impersonating official communications yesteryear the Embassy of the U.S.A. inward Mexico, mistaken AMBER Alerts, warnings of kidnappings, as well as other threats."
Once the victims opened upward the link, Pegasus would thus larn downloaded onto their smartphones, turning the target's smartphone into a digital spying tool, which is inward the steal of victims, precisely fully nether the command of the operator.
Among those targeted yesteryear the authorities include:
- Activists alongside the Centro Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez for Human Rights (Centro PRODH)
- Members of the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO)
- TV personality as well as investigative journalist Carmen Aristegui, along alongside her boy Emilio Aristegui (a teenager)
- Other journalists working for the Mexican non-profit Against Corruption as well as Impunity
- TV network Televisa anchor Carlos Loret de Mola
H5N1 bulk of the infection attempts on victims were recorded nether 2 divide events: inward August 2015 as well as betwixt Apr 2016 as well as July 2016.
The written report asserts that all bear witness points towards the Mexican authorities which itself is behind the cyber espionage.
