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The Mexican Prosecutor's Office says that at least one private company used the Pegasus 'malware'

2021-07-21T02:26:13.290Z


After four years, the agency reports progress in the espionage case against journalist Carmen Aristegui, linked to the fugitive Tomás Zerón


Carmen Aristegui, in a file image Eduardo Verdugo

The Attorney General's Office (FGR) reported this Tuesday that at least one private company, KBH TRACK, used the

Pegasus

malware

in Mexico. In a somewhat confusing statement, the agency explains that it learned about the company during the investigation of the espionage case against journalist Carmen Aristegui, whose phone was infected during the years of Enrique Peña Nieto's government (2012-2018). The prosecution has released these data after the publication of an international journalistic investigation on Sunday about the reach of Pegasus in the world. The research, coordinated by

Forbidden Stories

, indicates that in Mexico alone Pegasus customers had 15,000 potential targets, many more than in any other country.

Given the sensitive nature of the program, NSO Group, its maker, has always maintained that it only sells

malware

to governments.

Pegasus works like a virus.

Once installed on the target cell phone, the

malware

client

can access the victim's data.

In its statement, the Prosecutor's Office says: “Aristegui managed to provide a fundamental witness (...) to establish that the Israeli company NSO Group used the Mexican operating company KBH TRACK, from which a hard disk was obtained, in which it is fully demonstrated that said maquiladora company carried out the telephone espionage for various applicants who have not yet been fully identified for judicial purposes ”.

At the moment, NSO Group has not responded to the Prosecutor's Office.

More information

  • López Obrador and his family were the target of the Peña Nieto government's telephone espionage apparatus

  • The new revelations of the 'Pegasus case' reveal the inaction of the Mexican Prosecutor's Office

The data released this Tuesday constitutes the first advance in the investigation in four years.

In 2017, an investigation by activists and journalists uncovered the indiscriminate use of Pegasus in Mexico.

The investigation indicated that the cell phones of members of El Poder del Consumidor, an organization that was fighting for the creation of a tax on sugary soft drinks, were infected with the

malware

.

Other cases followed, including activists and journalists critical of the government, the Aristegui case.

Still in the years of Peña Nieto, the old Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation that has now been inherited by the FGR, led by Alejandro Gertz Manero. Throughout this time, the agency has remained silent on the case, in the face of criticism of the lack of progress by civil society organizations such as Article 19, the Network for Digital Rights or the Miguel Agustín Pro Human Rights Center. This Monday , the director of the latter, Santiago Aguirre, said: “I think it has to do with the fact that it is proven that the agency used technology. What's more, we don't know if they continue to use it. Maybe that's why they are so cautious ”.

The statement from the investigating agency also mentions Tomás Zerón, former director of the Criminal Investigation Agency of the prosecution, today a fugitive from Mexican justice. According to the FGR, Zerón, a refugee in Israel, “signed” the contracts with the NSO Group to acquire Pegasus in the Peña Nieto years. The statement does not make clear whether it was Zerón who imposed KBH TRACK's stake or it was NSO Group. It also does not provide data on how many contracts the agency itself signed with the NSO Group or whether it continues or has continued to use the Pegasus in recent years.

To date, the FGR, the state intelligence agency, Cisen and the Army have acknowledged that they hired Pegasus. In its statement, the FGR has not said whether it continues or has continued to use the Pegasus in recent years. Army and Cisén have not commented on the matter. In 2019, WhatsApp reported the NSO Group after the company detected that the malware had tried to infect thousands of phones, taking advantage of a security breach in the messaging system. Part of the Pegasus targets at the time were Mexican.

This Tuesday, the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, insisted that his government does not spy on journalists and activists and that any Pegasus-type tool is only used against crime. However, the president has indicated that he does not know if any government or state agency still has contracts with the Israeli company: “I don't know if this contract may exist, I am going to review it and today we are going to report. What I am sure of is that no one is spied on ”, he said.

In April, EL PAÍS reported that the current administration of the FGR has bought intelligence programs for the geolocation of cell phones and analysis of massive data for 5.6 million dollars.

The purchase was made in 2019 and 2020. The contractor was the

Neolinx

company

, which had already mediated between the Government of Peña Nieto and the Italian firm

Hacking Team

, also specialized in espionage systems.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-07-21

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