A prominent member of the European Parliament faced repeated cyberattacks with sophisticated hacking software while leading an official inquiry into surveillance abuses, as reported by The Guardian.
Researchers from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto uncovered that the mobile device belonging to Stelios Kouloglou was targeted multiple times using Pegasus spyware, which is manufactured by the Israel-based NSO Group.
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Although investigators could not link the cyber espionage to a specific government entity, the technical indicators aligned closely with an earlier hacking campaign directed at exiled Russian and Belarusian journalists operating within Europe.
"When you realise your private life is scrutinised by very bad people, you become angry," Kouloglou, who is also a journalist and left parliament in 2024, said in an interview.
"It's a big issue having to do with corruption, justice and democracy."
The surveillance targeted Kouloglou due to his active role in the special European parliamentary committee known as Pega, which lawmakers established in March 2022 following global revelations regarding the Pegasus Project.
The initial infection occurred around October 21, 2022, a timeframe characterized by intense committee deliberations and the formulation of Pega's preliminary findings.
NSO did not respond to a request for comment.
This initial breach took place while Kouloglou was hospitalized for elective surgery, where he received a visit from Greek investigative journalist Thanasis Koukakis.
Koukakis had been reporting on private mercenary spyware operations following the "Greek Watergate" scandal, a political crisis involving the unlawful monitoring of over 80 public figures, journalists, and military officials in Greece.
