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Espionage Against the European Parliament
- permalac 3mo agoThe catalan MEPs also were targeted with Pegasus, and I don't remember the details but at that time the only client were nation states, so Spain was the one to hire the service. Nothing happened.
- tomgow 3mo ago[flagged]
- shevy-java 3mo agoNot quite surprising. The more important question is: how much are lobbyists paid to sell out data of EU citizens to US corporations here? Will they prevail? There is enough money to go around for certain.
- r3trohack3r 3mo agoPro tip: if you’re going to try a propoganda - don’t be so transparent on your redirect.
- thin_carapace 3mo agoif you believe that the parent comment is propaganda, would you care to share why exactly you believe that the average european citizen benefits from mass surveillance funnelled through american channels?
- r3trohack3r 3mo agoTwo things can be true. The most compelling redirects refocus the conversation on another truth.
- thin_carapace 3mo agothe average person isnt taught to handle cognitive dissonance, maybe thats why lying by omission is such an effective propaganda technique. thank you for clarifying your perspective
- jongjong 3mo agoIt feels like they've been paid to sell out the users themselves, not just the data. It's weird that EU is so dependant on US tech when it comes to media platforms... While there are alternatives out there. In a lot of related areas in tech, it feels like suppression.
- dizlexic 3mo agoThis might be taken as hyperbolic, but the EU seems to have trouble building anything.
- DocTomoe 3mo agoNetwork effects are real. It is hard to convince people to move over to your platform if the selling argument is 'not quite there yet, but we got you covered on the minilib front, plus it's less usable because of our weird interpretation of our own data protection laws'.
- jongjong 3mo agoYes and my perspective is that GDPR has harmed EU startups and helped US companies by virtue of them being incumbents and having the resources to dedicate to compliance. Probably can't be fixed as easily now because of corporate culture around standards like SOC2 and ISO27001... Which I think are more harmful to security than helpful as they create complacency and hinder progress by creating barriers.
- stavros 3mo agoThere's a decision to be made whether corporations should be allowed to do anything they want or not. The countries that choose to let them do what they want, will obviously give them an advantage over the countries that don't. You and I, however, are not corporations, so maybe it's in our best interest if they actually aren't allowed to do whatever they want.
- r_lee 3mo ago
- petcat 3mo ago> In May 2026, Kouloglou contacted the Citizen Lab and we conducted a forensic analysis of artifacts from his iPhone. We found with high confidence that his device was successfully infected with Pegasus spyware on or around October 21, 2022, and again on March 6 and 7, 2023.
- VWWHFSfQ 3mo ago>> Further validating our finding of targeting, our forensic analysis shows Kouloglou received multiple Apple threat notifications about targeting with mercenary spyware on three occasions: March 2, 2023, August 29, 2023, and April 10, 2024. It is important to note that threat notifications from Apple and other companies are not real-time alerts. They are typically sent to users in batches, often months or more after targeting takes place. >> Kouloglou reports to us that he did not recall receiving the Apple notifications we observed. Am I understanding this correctly that Apple sent him notifications that he was being monitored and he ignored them?
- pmontra 3mo ago"he did not recall receiving the Apple notifications" so he didn't notice them.
- captn3m0 3mo agoDo we know how Apple sends these? Is it just a notification, or also email?
- krackers 3mo agohttps://support.apple.com/en-us/102174 https://support.apple.com/en-us/102174 >A Threat Notification is displayed at the top of the page after the user signs into account.apple.com. >Apple sends an email and iMessage notification to the email addresses and phone numbers associated with the user’s Apple Account. You can see what it looks like in https://reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1c10jai/i_have_received_two_messages_from_apple_stating/ https://reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1c10jai/i_have_received... I wonder how they detect it, is it for known IOCs that they've already found elsewhere, or do they have heuristic detection that flags things that might need further investigation.
- tomjow 3mo ago[flagged]
- tom4ow 3mo ago[flagged]
- elorant 3mo agoAround that time a lot of politicians in Greece had their phones hacked by Pegasus. It's an ongoing scandal in Greece that never got fully resolved, although all evidence indicate that it was an operation orchestrated by the office of the prime minister in coordination with the local intelligence service. So I wouldn't call that an attack against the European parliament.
- Krasnol 3mo agoSame story in Poland: https://notesfrompoland.com/2026/02/26/poland-charges-former-security-chiefs-over-use-of-pegasus-spyware/ https://notesfrompoland.com/2026/02/26/poland-charges-former... Everything looks like a nail if you have a hammer.
- freehorse 3mo agosmall correction, that is predator/intellexa, not pegasus/nso. So this is different
- tsoukase 2mo agoNo, it was the Predator rootkit that presumably was introduced directly from the PM to infect many politicians, even of his own party. This lead to the uncovering of the long-standing agricultural scandal of OPEKEPE gov org and is going to lead to the largest constitutional change in modern Greek history, after and only if he wins the elections next spring: among others lifting of minister immunity and reduction of the number of parliament members. Through the revelation of corrupt politicians' acts based on their phone data leakage, the public opinion turns against them and accepts the changes easier.
- bawolff 3mo agoOne interesting thing here, is they imply that both confidential personal medical information and confidential gov docs might have been compromised via the same phone. Does EU parliment not have a policy of seperating work and personal devices?
- dewey 3mo agoHaving a policy and what happens in the real world are most of the time very different things (Understandably, as the line between work and personal time is often blurry).
- bawolff 3mo agoTrue but one would hope though that people dealing with national security would follow more than your average employee.
- throw0101d 3mo ago> True but one would hope though that people dealing with national security would follow more than your average employee. The more important you are the more you may think that exceptions can be made for you.
- seb1204 3mo agoThen it seems the person is not suitable if they don't understand the gravity and their exposure
- throw0101d 2mo ago> Then it seems the person is not suitable if they don't understand the gravity and their exposure So you're telling me / implying that sometimes people are sometimes promoted [1] or hired into positions that they are unsuited for? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- 0x_rs 3mo agoJust for context, some european contries have been abusing spyware such as Pegasus so much Israeli firms have cut ties with them, one such example below with Italy. Others have pointed out Greece and Poland. It's quite laughable that a member of the EU parliament would be subject to the same kind of spying activities innocent journalists, activists and possibly normal people are, all of that by the member states of the union, directly contributing to the Israeli companies developing and spreading malware. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgmzdjw24yo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgmzdjw24yo
- notrealyme123 3mo agoCutting ties after there has been an outcry is damage controll. I would assume that the product is still available under another sub vendor to the same people.
- omnimus 3mo agoOf course it's damage control. The post just tries to paint the europeans as incompetent to hold the power. The company making spyware is somehow wise, righteous and saintly.
- jojobas 3mo agoEuro Parliament/Euro Commission are comically open to espionage. French/Belgian counterintelligence are not allowed to do much, and there is little in terms of EU counterintelligence.
- freehorse 3mo ago> we note an overlap between the first infection and a previously identified Pegasus campaign targeting Russian and Belarusian-speaking exiled journalists and activists in Europe, suggesting a Pegasus customer with authorization to spy in multiple European countries is responsible. Who has "authorization to spy in multiple European countries"? In this older article [0] about one of the mentioned russian exiles case it is mentioned that estonia and netherlands have used pegasus outside their borders, but there could be also others with such license > the Netherlands’ General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) and an unnamed Estonian government agency, appear to use Pegasus extensively outside their borders, including within multiple European countries However if the link between the russian exiles cases and kouloglou checks (through use of same mode of attack), a country like estonia sounds more likely. However, it can always be that an agency with access to pegasus uses it collaborating with/on behalf of an agency without. [0] https://www.accessnow.org/publication/hacking-meduza-pegasus-spyware-used-to-target-putins-critic/ https://www.accessnow.org/publication/hacking-meduza-pegasus...
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- goobatrooba 2mo agoIt's authorisation by the Israeli company providing Pegasus. So anyone who either pays enough or is serving Israeli interests.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- Hizonner 3mo agoHow is it that any NSO employee is still able to travel outside Israel without getting arrested? Seems like they're involved in criminal conspiracies in like half the countries in the world.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- r_lee 3mo agosame for CIA/NSA employees/contractors right?
- punk_ihaq 3mo agoCIA/NSA personnel use cover identities when working abroad and conceal their association with CIA/NSA: https://theintercept.com/snowden-sidtoday/3676073-cover-anonymity-when-mission-requires-nsa/ https://theintercept.com/snowden-sidtoday/3676073-cover-anon...
- greatgib 3mo agoThere will be no real consequence, as always, just more paperwork, so how to expect that anything will change?
- throw1234567891 3mo agoThey’ll quickly make up some law forcing someone to do something, or throw some hefty fine at someone, and it’ll be sorted pronto. Someone’s gotta be held responsible.
- CalRobert 3mo agoWould lockdown mode on iOS stop this?
- inigyou 3mo agoProbably, that's the point of it, however your smartphone becomes a very dumbphone in lockdown mode, intentionally to reduce attack surface. It's only really practical if you just need a dumb phone system endpoint to send and receive SMS and PSTN calls and check the time.
- r3trohack3r 2mo agoI keep my phone in lockdown mode and haven’t noticed too many problems day-to-day. A few minor inconveniences (webGL doesn’t work, the magic automatic code from SMS keyboard integration is gone, etc.) but overall the phone is still a smart phone.
- CalRobert 2mo agoMine has been on lockdown mode for months and all I’ve noticed is some images not loading on sites.
- codedokode 3mo agoIsn't it the problem with software architecture choices like large monolitic kernels, lots of unnecessary telemetry/marketing services, legacy APIs, unsafe languages like C, lack of static analysis, etc? You should threat a phone as an infected ground and do not keep anything important there. Some leaders simply do not use smartphones and are protected from electronic spyware.
- spixy 3mo agoWhich is difficult since smartphones are used as 2FA, and not every service has web interface, only mobile one (some banks, chats, dating, uber, etc..)
- DANmode 3mo agom.uber.com Never had a bank without a usable web app. You should consider the same! Stop shooting the web in the foot.
- port11 2mo agoWith the banks I use, the difference is: A) on mobile, use my face or 6-digit pin to get in. B) on web, go get my wallet where my ID is, hunt for the USB digital ID reader, grab a USB-C adapter, put everything together, and either confirm the certificate with a PIN I always forget or use the bank’s own calculator for a login code. Not exactly a fair setup for the web.
- DANmode 2mo agoIf you want to sacrifice security for convenience, that’s a different conversation than “I’m forced to”. Storing credentials and passkeys in browser password manager (backed up to Google or Apple) and using autofill is pretty normal stuff for mobile users today. (Not being able to find your credentials or keep your gear in order is also not a great reason to shoot the web in the foot!)
- codedokode 2mo ago
- aussieguy1234 3mo agoOf course, NSO group had nothing to do with it /s
- superze 3mo ago[flagged]
- inigyou 3mo agoAlmost every country spies on almost every other country. If it was a declaration of war, we'd be at world war nonstop since the time of Jesus Christ.
- zx8080 3mo ago> It is important to note that threat notifications from Apple and other companies are not real-time alerts. They are typically sent to users in batches, often months or more after targeting takes place. Wow, so Apple is able to detect threat, but does not remove or prevent it, and waits silently for months before notifying a user? If this is not a security theatre I don't know what is.
- hulitu 3mo ago> I don't know what is. PRISM.
- vivzkestrel 3mo ago- extremely stupid question: can they hack you with pegasus spyware if you use a nokia 1100? - if yes -> extremely stupid suggestion: why cant people in government positions use a nokia 1100 as work phone and some other phone as a personal phone?
- Cider9986 2mo agoIf you're using a nokia, there's no need for expensive mercenary spyware because your messages and calls aren't E2EE. If they did want to use spyware, it would be significantly cheaper because that phone is (decades?) out of date misses (thousands?) security patches.
- juliusceasar 2mo agoThis couldn't have happened without the knowlege of Israeli government. "The sale of Pegasus licenses to foreign governments must be approved by the Israeli Ministry of Defense."