Pegasus Spyware Infection Confirmed on Serbian University Rector's iPhone Days Before Election

Summary: The Citizen Lab said on October 19 that the iPhone of Vladan Đokić, rector of the University of Belgrade and a supporter of Serbia's student protest movement, was infected with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware in 2026 via a zero-click exploit, six days before Serbia's October 25 snap parliamentary election. A second case involves Rade Bajić, a senior prosecutorial associate on the Generalštab corruption investigation, who received Apple Threat Notifications on August 13 and August 27, bringing the number of Serbian civil society members publicly known to have been targeted or infected with mercenary spyware this year to at least 16 by the Citizen Lab's count.
What's compelling: Pegasus gives its operator the same access as the phone's owner, including encrypted messages, and can switch on the microphone and camera without the owner knowing, per the lab's analysis of the September case. The Citizen Lab's note names no flaw used against Đokić's phone and does not say whether current iOS releases block it, so there is no case-specific fix to install.

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