Mexico arrests businessman for using Pegasus spyware on journalist

Mexico had the largest list about 15,000 phone numbers among more than 50,000 reportedly selected by NSO clients for potential surveillance.

Mexican prosecutors said they have arrested a businessman on charges he used the Pegasus spyware to spy on a journalist. The software marketed by the Israeli spyware firm NSO Group has been implicated in government surveillance of opponents and journalists around the world. Mexico had the largest list about 15,000 phone numbers among more than 50,000 reportedly selected by NSO clients for potential surveillance.

Federal prosecutors announced the arrest on Monday, but did not name the suspect under rules aimed at protecting presumption of innocence. A federal official not authorised to be quoted by name said the suspect is Juan Carlos Garca Rivera, who has been linked to the company Proyectos y Diseos VME and Grupo KBH. He was detained on November 1. In July, Mexico’s top security official said two previous administrations spent USD 61 million to buy the Pegasus spyware. Public Safety Secretary Rosa Icela Rodrguez said records had been found of 31 contracts signed during the administrations of President Felipe Caldern in 2006-2012 and President Enrique Pea Nieto in 2012-2018. Some contracts may have been disguised as purchases of other equipment…Read More

Spyware installed on phones through WhatsApp calls; bug fixed

Firm gives guidance on ensuring protection; reports state spyware infused through voice calls

A framework defect in the calling capacity of WhatsApp let aggressors introduce an Israeli programming that permitted them access to cell phones of the clients, Financial Times investigated Tuesday.

The vindictive programming, or spyware, was created by the “undercover Israeli organization NSO Group”, said the monetary every day. The product introduced itself in a client’s cell phone by calling the objective through WhatsApp. The spyware accessed an individual’s telephone regardless of whether the aggressor’s WhatsApp call wasn’t replied. The calls additionally frequently vanished from call logs, and influenced Android, iPhone and Tizen-based telephones.

“We trust a select number of clients were focused through this defenselessness by a progressed digital entertainer. The assault has every one of the signs of a privately owned business allegedly that works with governments to convey spyware that assumes control over the elements of cell phone working frameworks,” WhatsApp said in an email reaction.

It is working with US law authorization to enable them to lead an examination. “These are exceedingly refined assaults. We are from the get-go in our examination and we don’t have numbers to share however this is a moderately little measure of individuals,” WhatsApp included its reaction.

The NSO Group has been at the focal point of a contention encompassing the utilization of its Pegasus programming for keeping an eye on writers, human rights activists and different people important to governments. “NSO Group claims it enables governments to battle fear mongering and wrongdoing, however it has neglected to counter mounting proof connecting its items to assaults on human rights safeguards… NSO Group has over and again denied, yet not solidly tended to, the records that its Pegasus spyware stage has been abused to target human rights protectors,” human rights NGO Amnesty International said in a post on its site on Monday.