This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race

by Nicole Perlroth

Within hours of publishing our story, people had taken over the streets in Mexico City to call for Peña Nieto’s resignation. The hashtag #GobiernoEspía—the government spies—started trending worldwide on Twitter. All of Mexico appeared to be up in arms. Our reporting had forced Peña Nieto to acknowledge that Mexico was using NSO’s spyware—a first for any government leader. But Peña Nieto denied ordering the government to spy on his critics and journalists. And then Mexico’s president strayed from his script: His administration, he warned, would “apply the law against those who have levelled false accusations against the government.” Peña Nieto’s underlings later backtracked. The president had misspoken and had not intended to threaten Azam and me, or the New York Times.