Widow of murdered Mexico journalist was surveillance target days after death

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Widow of murdered Mexico journalist was surveillance target days after death

• Government-linked spyware sent to Griselda Triana’s phone
• Husband Javier Valdez was murdered only 10 days previously

David Agren in Mexico City
Wed 20 Mar 2019 22.34 GMT

Even in a country long-used to violence, the cowardly 2017 murder of the Mexican journalist Javier Valdez prompted outrage: reporters held protests, news outlets stopped publishing for a day and the then president, Enrique Peña Nieto, promised that the crime would not go unpunished.

But barely 10 days after Valdez was pulled from his car and shot dead, his widow Griselda Triana was targeted for surveillance with spyware which had been purchased by the Mexican government.

The internet watchdog group Citizen Lab revealed on Wednesday that Tirana received two text messages with deceptive links to software which would have infected her smartphone if downloaded and installed.

-snip-

Previous investigations by Citizen Lab researchers at the University of Toronto have revealed that such spyware was used against Mexican anti-corruption crusaders, journalists investigating the president, and activists pushing for a soda tax.

But the revelation that it was also used in an attempt to spy on Triana has triggered a fresh wave of fury over Mexican authorities’ failure to stem violence against the press in the most dangerous country in the hemisphere for media workers.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/20/widow-of-murdered-mexico-journalist-was-surveillance-target-days-after-death

[Judi Lynn]

1. Slain Mexican journalist's widow says government spied on her

Slain Mexican journalist's widow says government spied on her
BY AFP 5 HOURS AGO

Slain Mexican journalist Javier Valdez's widow said Wednesday the government tried to spy on her after her husband's murder using Israeli-made spyware, the latest in a string of accusations of abusive espionage.

Griselda Triana said she had received suspicious messages on her cell phone resembling those reported by prominent journalists and activists who say the government of former president Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018) targeted them with highly invasive spyware known as Pegasus.

. . .

Triana said that in the days after the murder, she received text messages with eye-catching news headlines inviting her to click on a link to read the full story.

. . .

According to computer security experts at the press conference, clicking on them would in fact have installed Pegasus on her phone, giving access to her camera, microphone, photos, messages and other data.

Since 2017, analysts have sounded the alarm over a string of similar cases targeting activists and journalists critical of the Pena Nieto administration and also a team of international experts investigating the suspected massacre of 43 students in 2014.

More:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/slain-mexican-journalist-s-widow-says-government-spied-on-her/article/545776