Hacking tools believed to have originated from government-focused Israeli spyware company NSO Group have been used to target health activists who support a soda tax in Mexico, according to a report published Friday.

The New York Times wrote that the tools, which are exclusively sold only to governments, targeted researchers and activists between 2014 and 2016, including Simon Barquera, a well-respected Mexican government health scientist; Alejandro Calvillo, the director of a consumer and health advocacy organization; and Luis Encarnación, the director of a coalition working on obesity prevention.

In all cases, those targeted received disturbing text messages. They included allegations that friends had died, that they had been accused of negligence and, in one case, that the wife of the person targeted had been cheating on him. All those text messages included a link to prove the allegation, but the link would instead have installed spyware on the phone that would have allowed the person behind the message to trace a target’s every phone call, text message, email, keystroke, location, sound and sight.

The report notes that the NSO Group, like similar outfits such as the Hacking Team in Italy and Gamma Group in Britain, insist they sell tools only to governments for criminal and terrorism investigations, raising the obvious question: Who was using their tools to target health advocates?

Citizen Lab, who first raised the alarm about NSO Group tools being used for non-criminal targeting in August 2016, noted on the new report that the “case suggests that NSO’s government-exclusive espionage tools may be being used by a government entity on behalf of commercial interests, and not for national security reasons or fighting crime.”

The soda industry itself denies any involvement. Lorena Cerdán, director of ConMéxico, a commercial group representing Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in the country, told The Times that the group had no knowledge of or part in the mobile hacking. “This is the first we’re hearing of it,” Ms. Cerdán said. “And frankly, it scares us, too.”

Whether the Mexican government, American-owned soda manufacturers or someone else was behind the attacks may be never known. But the case remains a disturbing one, given that it would indicate that what was usually the domain of government-level hacking is now being used for corporate espionage.

Image: jeepersmedia/Flickr/CC by 2.0