Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – According to a report by The New York Times, the United States Government has used the cyber-espionage program Pegasus, developed by the NSO Group, to monitor targets in Mexico on multiple occasions, possibly thousands of times.
The report reveals that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) contracted the spyware via the company “Cleopatra Holdings” in 2021. Pegasus allows users to privately track cell phones globally, without the device carrier’s consent.
Days later, the US organization signed a new contract with Cleopatra Holdings for the landmark program, which can locate and identify telephone calls in real-time. The New York Times claims that, under this contract, Pegasus was evaluated and used against “targets of its choice in Mexico,” with thousands of uses in at least one instance.
The federal administration of the United States refused to answer questions from The New York Times regarding which government agency acquired the spyware and why it was repeatedly used in Mexico.
The President of the United States’ government signed an executive order to restrict the use of software that has been abused by different nations, including Pegasus. However, Cleopatra Holdings continues to make monthly payments for the program.
Pegasus is known to infect mobile devices and allow attackers to access private data, such as messages, emails, photos, and call records. The spyware can also activate a device’s microphone and camera, enabling eavesdropping and monitoring of the user’s surroundings. Governments and law enforcement agencies have used Pegasus to target individuals for surveillance, including journalists, activists, and politicians, raising concerns about privacy violations and human rights abuses. Pegasus has also been linked to attacks on journalists and dissidents in recent years. The spyware was developed by Israel’s intelligence services.
Mexico’s Government also uses Pegasus to spy on journalists and human rights activists
An investigation carried out by the Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D) based on the documents leaked by the Guacamaya collective and released in March showed that the Military Intelligence Center, a secret branch of the National Defense Secretariat ( Sedena) used the Pegasus malware to spy on human rights activist Raymundo Ramos, with the full knowledge of the High Command, that is, the Secretary of National Defense, General Luis Crescencio Sandoval, to interfere in the investigations into extrajudicial executions in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas .
A secret information card from Sedena reveals that the Military Intelligence Center intervened in the private communications that Raymundo Ramos had in his role as president of the Human Rights Committee of Nuevo Laredo with several journalists in relation to the alleged extrajudicial executions committed by the Army on July 3, 2020.
An updated forensic analysis from the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto, R3D points out, showed that Raymundo Ramos’ phone was infected with Pegasus on different occasions between August 16, 2020, and September 2, 2020.
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