Researchers say EU lawmaker who investigated surveillance was hacked by Israeli spyware
Citizen Lab said the attacks used a zero-click Apple exploit and exposed private data as Kouloglou served on the European Parliament’s spyware inquiry.
- On Friday, The Citizen Lab reported that Pegasus spyware targeted former European politician Stelios Kouloglou during 2022 and 2023, marking the first public identification of a European Parliament PEGA Committee member hacked while investigating surveillance tool abuses.
- During the committee's "key hearings," Kouloglou's phone was compromised in October 2022 and twice in March 2023, with operators potentially listening to private conversations while he recovered from hospital surgery.
- Utilizing a "zero-click" bug in Apple software to silently extract data, the exploit targeted the committee's work, which Green MEP Hannah Neumann described as "not just randomly spying on him."
- Kouloglou plans to sue NSO Group, the Israeli-headquartered spyware maker, as one European lawmaker described the intrusion as a "direct attack on the rule of law," urging the European Commission to impose strict spyware limits across the 27 member-state bloc.
- Previous recommendations for a spyware taskforce remain unadopted by the European Parliament, leading Citizen Lab's Scott-Railton to warn, "Europe has a mountain of spyware abuses, and nothing has happened—it's an embarrassment for European institutions.
45 Articles
45 Articles
Greek Politician Investigating Spyware Had Mobile Phone Hacked
The mobile phone of a Greek politician was repeatedly hacked by spyware while he was working on a European Parliament investigation into sellers of the surveillance technology, new research has found.
Former Member of the European Parliament Stelios Kouloglou was ‘hacked multiple times’ with Pegasus spyware. This occurred while Kouloglou was part of a parliamentary committee investigating the misuse of that spyware. This is revealed in a new forensic investigation reported by Politico.
Member of the commission to examine the use of spy software in Europe, former MEP Stelios Kouloglou was himself tracked. ...
The phone of the former elected Stelios Kouloglou was infected by the Pegasus software while he was sitting on the parliamentary committee of inquiry dedicated to this bugger.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 41% of the sources lean Left
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
