Journalists and human rights defenders in Mexico were hacked using spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group as recently as 2021, even after the country’s current government swore it was no longer going to use the hacking software, new research has found.
The alleged victims of the spyware include two journalists who report on issues related to official corruption and a prominent human rights defenders, according to digital rights researchers at R3D (Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales) and The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, which tracks such infections.
The news was considered especially shocking in light of political promises by Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, that the country would no longer use spyware.
His statement followed revelations by the Guardian and more than a dozen other media organisations who reported last year that the phone numbers of at least 50 people linked to
— source theguardian.com | Stephanie Kirchgaessner | 5 Oct 2022