Alejandro Encinas, Mexico’s under secretary for human rights, has been repeatedly targeted with Pegasus, the world’s most notorious spyware, while investigating abuses by the nation’s military. This is the first confirmed case of such a senior member of an administration – let alone someone so close to the president – being surveilled by Pegasus in more than a decade of the spy tool’s use in the country. The attacks on Mr. Encinas seriously undercut President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pledge to end what he has called the “illegal” spying of the past. Pegasus is licensed only to government agencies, and while there’s no definitive proof which one carried out the hack of Mr. Encinas’s phone, the military is the only entity in Mexico that has access to the spyware. The Israeli manufacturer of Pegasus, NSO Group, has opened an investigation into cyberattacks on human rights defenders in Mexico and is looking into the attacks on Mr. Encinas and his two colleagues. If NSO confirms that Mr. Encinas and others were targeted for no legitimate reason by the Mexican military, the company could immediately shut down the institution’s access to Pegasus. The hacking has put Mr. Encinas and the president in a tough position, as the president has continued to deny that any spying is happening.
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