EU lawmaker investigating surveillance hacked by Israeli spyware, report says | Technology News
Former MEP Hacked with Pegasus Spyware During Committee Investigation
A former member of the European Parliament (MEP) was targeted by Pegasus spyware while serving on a committee investigating the surveillance tool’s Israeli developer, according to a report from Citizen Lab, a Canadian research organization.
Stelios Kouloglou, who represented Greece as an MEP from 2015 to 2024, had his iPhone infected at least three times with Pegasus spyware during 2022 and 2023. The breaches coincided with his involvement in the PEGA Committee, which was established in 2022 to examine the illicit use of Pegasus and similar surveillance technology across the European Union.
Citizen Lab revealed that the spyware incidents took place while Kouloglou was in Athens and Brussels. Following these breaches, he received notifications from Apple regarding potential malware threats, although these alerts came months after the infections, the report indicated.
Kouloglou, who did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment, had requested a forensic investigation of his phone in May. The Citizen Lab report underscored the significant risks that commercial spyware poses to the integrity of democratic processes.
“Whichever entity is responsible for the hacking, the infection could have exposed strictly confidential exchanges among PEGA Committee members and their staff,” the report stated. It did not attribute the unauthorized access to any specific government but found no evidence linking the breach to the Greek government.
Pegasus, developed by the NSO Group in Israel, grants its operators the ability to remotely access a target’s phone, including messages, contacts, and camera. Although NSO markets Pegasus as a legitimate tool for law enforcement, it has been widely criticized for being used against journalists, activists, and political figures.
In 2021, the U.S. government blacklisted NSO Group, citing actions contrary to national security interests. A U.S. judge also prohibited the company from targeting WhatsApp due to concerns that its software causes harm.
NSO Group did not respond to requests for comment, but has maintained that it thoroughly vets its customers and has terminated contracts with users found to misuse the software. The European Commission did not respond to inquiries regarding the situation.
Rand Hammoud, director of the security, surveillance, and human rights program at the Center for Democracy and Technology Europe, emphasized the broader implications of the incident. “The targeting of a PEGA Committee member raises serious concerns about the integrity of democratic oversight itself,” Hammoud said.
German MEP Hannah Neumann, also a member of the PEGA Committee, called for an immediate investigation into the breaches, stating on social media, “Spyware doesn’t make democracies safer. It weakens democratic oversight, parliamentary independence, and the rule of law.”