Discovery Date: March 2025
Spyware Tool: Pegasus (NSO Group)
Attack Type: One-click message exploit via Viber
Victims: Two journalists from BIRN (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network)
Suspected Actor: Serbian state-linked entity
Primary Objective: Surveillance of journalists investigating state corruption
Forensic Confirmation: Amnesty International Security Lab
Global Context: Growing use of military-grade spyware against civil society
Targeted for Telling the Truth
Two investigative journalists in Serbia became the latest targets of the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, marking another escalation in the country’s digital assault on dissent. According to Amnesty International, the journalists — both affiliated with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) — were attacked using one-click Pegasus infections delivered through Viber, Serbia’s popular messaging app.
The incident represents a disturbing third strike: this is the third confirmed Pegasus deployment against Serbian civil society in just two years.
The Attack: Engineered Deception
The journalists received unusual messages from an unknown number — a number later determined to be linked to Serbia’s state-run telecommunications provider. Each message was crafted to appear personal and urgent, one reading:
“Do you have info that he is next? I heard something completely different.”
It contained a hyperlink that Amnesty later confirmed was associated — with high confidence — to a known Pegasus command-and-control domain.
Although Pegasus is infamous for zero-click attacks, this one required only a single tap. Amnesty’s Security Lab verified the spyware on both devices, concluding the targeting was not only real — but almost certainly state-sponsored.
Why Now? Why These Journalists?
One of the reporters was investigating a high-profile corruption case linked to state authorities. Just a day prior to receiving the spyware-laced message, she had met with sources close to the government.
That timing was no accident.
This wasn’t a dragnet surveillance operation — this was surgical targeting, designed to monitor, intimidate, and potentially discredit journalists probing into state-linked misconduct.
Amnesty’s Statement: The Finger Points to the State
Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, head of Amnesty’s Security Lab, said:
“The continued use of Serbian-language Pegasus infection domains, and the targeting of Serbian civil society with a consistent methodology, are indicative of these attacks being carried out by a Serbian state entity.”
Translation? The digital fingerprints match — and they lead back to the Serbian government.
Sonic Weapons and Protest Suppression
This spyware attack is part of a wider suppression campaign that’s been intensifying across Serbia:
- March 15, 2025: Tens of thousands flooded Belgrade in a massive anti-government rally. Protesters allege authorities deployed illegal sonic weapons to disperse crowds.
- November 2023: A zero-click Pegasus attack hit two civil society members just before national elections.
- Late 2023: Amnesty detected another Pegasus strike against a prominent protest figure.
- December 2023: Serbian officials reportedly used Cellebrite tech to forcibly unlock civilian phones and install homegrown surveillance apps.
The pattern is now undeniable: Serbia is treating peaceful dissent as a threat to be neutralized — not debated.
NSO Group’s Position: The Same Old Story
When contacted about this latest incident, NSO Group did not issue a direct response. However, it reiterated to Amnesty:
“All sales of our systems are to vetted government end-users.”
But as global watchdogs have repeatedly pointed out — the term “vetted” has lost meaning when repressive regimes consistently end up with access to Pegasus.
Takeaway:
This is more than a spyware story. It’s a reflection of a larger truth:
In an age of encrypted chats and invisible signals, governments don’t need to silence you with jail cells — they can surveil you into submission.
Journalists in Serbia are under siege — not with lawsuits or smear campaigns — but with digital weapons designed to penetrate national security infrastructure.
When a journalist has to second-guess every message… every meeting… every move — freedom of the press dies one pixel at a time.
Final Word: The Weaponization of Silence
What’s happening in Serbia isn’t unique. It’s a global blueprint now being exported, adapted, and repeated across regions where authoritarian tendencies are on the rise.
If truth is the enemy, journalists are the hunted.
And The Realist Juggernaut will never stop documenting the hunt.
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