Access Now joins more than 30 human rights organizations and individuals in
condemning
the Pegasus spyware attack against Stelios Kouloglou, a Greek journalist and then-Member of the European Parliament, while he was serving on the
PEGA committee
, a European Parliament committee that investigated Pegasus and other spyware abuses, as
revealed
by the Citizen Lab. Citizen Lab’s report indicates that Kouloglou’s iPhone was infected with Pegasus spyware on or around October 21, 2022, and again on March 6 and 7, 2023.
Access Now is especially concerned about Citizen Lab’s
shocking finding
that on October 21, Kouloglou’s iPhone was hacked by the same government that also targeted several victims in our joint
2024 investigation
of Pegasus hacking of Russian- and Belarusian-speaking journalists and activists based in the EU. According to the Citizen Lab’s forensic analysis, on that day, Kouloglou was targeted from the same Apple ID —
rauharepo888[@]gmail.com
— as several of the victims named in the report. Citizen Lab has no evidence that the hacking was the work of the Greek, Russian, or Belarusian government.
The findings in the Citizen Lab report that the same government that hacked Russian and Belarusian journalists in exile has also targeted the European Parliament are shocking but not surprising.Those who target civil society do not stop there, but often also target other groups, including government officials. The scourge of spyware must be urgently addressed, as it’s a threat to human rights, democracy, and national security.
Natalia Krapiva, Senior Tech-Legal Counsel at Access Now
Citizen Lab’s report indicates that Kouloglou was hacked during key periods of PEGA Committee activity and would have likely allowed the attacker to capture non-public information about committee activities, including preparations for the publication of its first draft report. On the date of the first documented infection, Kouloglou was in the hospita
… [more]
