PEGA Committee draft report reveals rampant spyware abuse in Europe
"Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware" 22 November 2022
At a time when European values are under attack from an external aggressor, it is all the more important to bolster our democratic rule of law against attacks from the inside. The findings of the PEGA inquiry are shocking and should alarm every European citizen. It is evident that the trade in and use of spyware should be strictly regulated. The PEGA committee will make a series of recommendations to that effect. However, there should also be initiatives for institutional and political reforms to enable the EU to enforce and uphold these rules and standards, even when violated by Member States themselves. The EU must rapidly develop its defense lines against attacks on democracy from within...
...Poland: [I]n 2017, Pegasus was acquired by the Polish government following a meeting between Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Netanyahu. Despite initial denials, in January 2022 PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski confirmed the purchase of spyware by the Polish government...
...Hungary: Hungary was one of the first countries to be embroiled in the European spyware scandal. In 2021, it was revealed by the Pegasus Project that a number of Hungarian phone numbers were listed among the 50,000 identified as potentially hacked by the NSO product. It has since been confirmed by Amnesty International that over 300 Hungarians have fallen victim to Pegasus, including political activists, journalists, lawyers, entrepreneurs and a former government minister...
...Greece: This year Greece has been shaken by a series of revelations regarding the evidently politically motivated use of spyware. On 26 July 2022, Member of the European Parliament and leader of the Greek opposition PASOK party Nikos Androulakis filed a complaint with the Supreme Court Prosecutor’s Office about attempts to infect his cell phone with Predator spyware. In August 2022, the Greek government conceded that EYP had indeed been monitoring Androulakis and Koukakis, but it denied the use of Predator spyware in these surveillance operations. In addition, other cases of surveillance by the EYP came to light during this period, such as that of journalist Stavros Malichoudis...
...Cyprus: In 2019 Cyprus was rocked by a scandal following an interview of Tal Dilian with Forbes, showing off his "Black Van" full of state of the art surveillance technology. In the investigations that followed, it emerged that he had received government authorisation for an experiment at the national airport, collecting personal data of passengers via the airport WiFi...The court imposed a 76.000 euro fine on Dilian's company WiSpear, and the data protection authority issued a fine of 925,000 euro in light of GDPR violations...
...Spain: The July 2021 revelations by the Pegasus project showed a large number of targets in Spain. However, they seem to have been targeted by different actors and for different reasons. It is widely believed that the Moroccan authorities targeted Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Minister for Defence Margarita Robles and Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande- Marlaska, similarly to the case of the French President and government ministers. The targeting of a second group of victims is referred to as "CatalanGate". It includes Catalan parliamentarians, Members of the European Parliament, lawyers, civil society organisation members and some family and staff connected to those victims. The “CatalanGate” surveillance scandal was first reported on in 2020, but it was not until April 2022 that Citizen Lab completed their in-depth investigation that the scale of the scandal was revealed. The results of that probe showed that at least 65 persons were targeted. In May 2020, the Spanish authorities admitted to targeting 18 of those 65 victims with court authorisation...
...The Netherlands: From November 2014 to December 2016, NSO Group was able to operate thanks to two companies, Shapes 1 BV and Shapes 2 BV, established in the Netherlands, in the sectors of “financial holdings” and “engineers and other technical design and advice.” Both were liquidated again after two years in operation...
...Belgium: In an interview with The New Yorker, a former Israeli intelligence official revealed that the Belgian police uses Pegasus in its operations. In response, the Belgian police stated “not to communicate about any technical and/or technical means used for investigations and missions”. In September 2021, Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne mentioned that Pegasus “can be used in a legal way” by the intelligence services, but did not want to confirm whether the Belgian intelligence service is a client of NSO or is using any spyware against criminals...
Other country profiles include: Germany, Malta, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Italy, Austria, Estonia, Lithuania and Bulgaria.