John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Oct 2, 2022 10 tweets 10 min read Read on X
BREAKING: journalists & human rights defenders hacked with #Pegasus in 🇲🇽#Mexico.

Years *after* spyware scandals & new President's promise that abuses were over.

THREAD 1/

Report by @R3Dmx ejercitoespia.r3d.mx
We @citizenlab did forensic validation: citizenlab.ca/2022/10/new-pe… Key Takeaways Mexican digital rights organization R3D (Red eOur technical validation of forensic artifacts collected fro
2/ Per @R3Dmx, #Pegasus victims were infected while working on:

❌Connections between Los Zetas Cartel & Mexican Army
❌Official misconduct in investigations into #Ayotzinapa forced disappearances
❌Human rights violations by Mexican Armed Forces.

Chilling. Ricardo Raphael  Raphael, a prominent journalist and author Raymundo Ramos Vázquez  Ramos has spent years documenting h
3/ Mexico was first rocked by #Pegasus scandals in 2017 under President @EPN.

We @citizenlab, @R3Dmx @socialtic & @article19org had found dozens of abuse cases.

When Pres. @lopezobrador_ took office, he promised hacking abuses were a thing of the past...
4 Mexico's #Pegasus scandals didn't stop.

The #PegasusProject also revealed that scores in the circle of @lopezobrador_ had been potentially selected for targeting while @EPN was in office.

Including now-President AMLO's wife & children. In 2017, the Citizen Lab, along with partners R3D, SocialTic
5/ Mexico has been one of the *most* notorious cases of #Pegasus spyware abuses.

NSO Group has has been confronted about this. For years.

Mexico's new president, touched himself by spyware abuses prior to entering office... had promised it was over.

Yet here we are.
6/ Yet again, journalists & human rights defenders of intense interest to the Mexican government got hacked.

Chillingly, some of their work was clearly of intense interest to cartels, too.

#Mexico has seen *half a decade* of abuses like this. Need for an Independent Investigation These latest cases, wh
7/ I urge you to read @R3Dmx's full report. Here's their thread on the cases.
8/ Another key find via @R3Dmx: Mexico did recent business with companies linked to prior #Pegasus contracts👇👇

Despite making strenuous efforts to deny any such business.
9/ A key detail: while previous Pegasus cases @citizenlab investigated in #Mexico involved finding SMS messages and 1-click attacks... these latest cases were zero-click attacks.

No action was required on the part of the victims to be infected.
10/ Of course NSO has a response that is not serious.

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More from @jsrailton

Dec 17
NEW: #China #Russia #Iran & #Israel are spying on 🇺🇸Americans using telecom weaknesses says @DHSgov

Deeply concerning on heels of #SaltTyphoon breaches.

All US carriers vulnerable to some extent.

We know this thanks to Sen @RonWyden's tireless work to expose #SS7 & #Diameter vulnerabilities.

Here's how they work...

Story by @josephfcox 1/Image
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2/ Here's the thing about the global network for routing calls.

Requests are trusted by default. Whatever operator they come from!

Since requests can let you do things like intercept calls, texts & track phones locations...

...a lot of governments & some shady companies have come running.

All they needed was a "Global Title" which is not hard to get in some jurisdictions.

Result? A tidal wave from around the globe of shady requests for the purpose of spying on people.

Including Americans. In the US.

We @citizenlab exposed Circles, one such player...

Story: 404media.co/dhs-says-china…Image
3/ There's an active global market for companies whose product line revolves around abusing the trusting nature of call routing to conduct surveillance.

We @citizenlab ran scans & mapped deployments of this tech by one such player: Circles.

Circles had previously merged with NSO Group, which makes #Pegasus.

citizenlab.ca/2020/12/runnin…Image
Read 5 tweets
Dec 16
NEW: police in #Serbia caught unlocking activists phones with @Cellebrite's mobile forensic tools & planting spyware on them.

Incredibly troubling investigation by @AmnestyTech delves into how the Serbian authorities mix a toxic brew of repression out of homegrown + foreign mercenary spyware like #Pegasus + $CLBT's forensic tools possibly supplied as part of foreign assistance from #Norway. 1/

Read: amnesty.org/en/documents/e…Image
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2/ From Traffic Stop to Spyware Victim...

As costs increase for zero-click spyware, expect to see authorities getting creative...

Rolling their own tech & finding novel ways to plant it on activists' devices with physical access.
3/ A favorite detail: a @Cellebrite exploit got caught & vuln patched.

This is what happens when your tech is abusively used against activists...

Mad impressive technical lift by @google's Project Zero's @__sethJenkins ft @benoitsevens, @tehjh et al.👇
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Read 7 tweets
Dec 5
🚨NEW INVESTIGATION: Russia's 🇷🇺 FSB beat & detained this programmer.

They demanded he inform on contacts in #Ukraine.

When he was finally released, Kirill Parubets got his phone back.

It was bugged with spyware. 1/

Investigative collab by us @citizenlab w/@DeptFirst.Image
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2/ Russian authorities descended on Kirill Parubets & his spouse. Raiding their apartment.

Beating him for his passwords.

Accusation? Money transfers to #Ukraine.

Then they threw the couple into custody.

The #FSB threatened life imprisonment if he didn't agree to become an informant.

citizenlab.ca/2024/12/device…Image
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3/ When the couple was eventually released , Parubets was eventually able to pick up his devices from the #FSB at the dreaded Lubyanka building (former KGB HQ, also a prison).

As a programmer, he carefully scrutinized his returned devices & noticed a weird notification on his Android...Image
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Read 10 tweets
Dec 3
Good! Finally a path to crackdown on data brokers.

Americans are constantly victimized by these companies.

Privacy shouldn't be partisan, so pay close attention to see who comes out against these common-sense plans from the @CFPB. 1/

By Dell Cameron & Andrew Couts @wired.Image
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2/ The volume of data constantly collected & sold on Americans puts the US at a global disadvantage.

The data-broker firehose is a hostile foreign intelligence service's delight.

But that's just the beginning.
3/ Whether it's financial surveillance, purchases, browsing behavior, where you drive and walk, what you look at... Americans arguably face as much totally legal private-sector surveillance as any country in the world.

And legally we've been basically unprotected.

It is absurd.
Read 5 tweets
Dec 3
Meet 'decolonization' expert Nomma Zarubina.

FSB codename "Alyssa"

All over the Washington DC think tank circuit. Had a knack for meeting US officials. Even attended some protests against Russia.

Just last week she spoke at an event on Parliament Hill in #Canada.

She's just been charged by the #FBI for lying about taking direction from the FSB. 1/Image
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2/ Nomma Zarubina was collecting photos with current & former officials like Pokemon.

Wearing some NGO bona-fides, she also shows up at a lot of events with prominent exiles from #Russia & figures from #Ukraine.

She also got into all sorts of meetings... Image
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3/ Zarubina's story follows from investigation of Elena Branson.

Branson fled to #Russia in 2020 after the Russian Center New York was raided). Branson got a lot of charges, including acting as an illegal agent.

Zarubina worked for the RCNY & was close to Branson..

Branson case: justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/d…Image
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Read 9 tweets
Nov 27
BREAKING: #ExxonMobil lobbyist investigated over hacking of American nonprofits.

Hacked material fed PR campaigns & lawsuits against environmental advocacy orgs. 1/

By @razhael & @Bing_Chris Image
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2/ The case goes back years & centers around a massive hack-for-hire operation based in #India....

...that did the dirty work for powerful people & companies around the world.

3/ This latest chapter in the case, now public, thanks to the work of @razhael & @Bing_Chris, shows how money & dirty tricks are brought to bear against organizations that go up against certain powerful companies.

reuters.com/business/energ…Image
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Read 4 tweets

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