Spyware Targeted MEP Investigating Pegasus Abuses

Spyware developed by NSO Group was used against a member of the European parliament while he was investigating spyware abuses in Europe, a new report from Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto states. The researchers found that Stelios Kouloglou, a Greek former MEP, was targeted with the Pegasus hacking software. While Citizen Lab could not attribute the attacks to a specific government operator, the investigation indicated that the hacking campaign against Kouloglou bore similarities to a previous operation targeting exiled Russian and Belarusian journalists in Europe.

The report details that Kouloglou's device was compromised after he joined a European parliamentary committee focused on investigating the use of spyware. This committee was examining the implications of tools like Pegasus, which have been linked to human rights abuses and surveillance of journalists, activists, and political opponents globally. The timing of the compromise suggests a potential effort to disrupt or monitor the parliamentary inquiry.

Citizen Lab's findings highlight the persistent threat posed by sophisticated spyware. The group's analysis of the attack vectors and methods used against Kouloglou's device provided evidence of the compromise. The report underscores the challenges in attributing such attacks definitively, often due to the covert nature of state-sponsored cyber operations. However, the identified patterns allowed researchers to draw connections to other known campaigns, suggesting a coordinated or similar operational methodology.

This incident raises significant concerns about the security of elected officials and the integrity of parliamentary investigations into sensitive technology. The use of spyware against a lawmaker actively scrutinizing its deployment points to a high level of intent and resources behind the targeting. The findings are expected to fuel further debate and calls for stricter regulation of spyware vendors and their clients.