Spyware found on EU officials’ smartphones – Politico

The European Parliament has asked officials to check their phones for spyware after two devices were found to have been hacked, POLITICO reported.

 The report states that surveillance software attacked the phones of the staff of the House Subcommittee on Security and Defense (SEDE). 

The institution’s IT service advised all European lawmakers to bring their phones for spyware checks. 

“One member of the Security and Defense Subcommittee went for a routine inspection on Tuesday, which resulted in the phones being checked and traces of spyware being found,”  an EP member told POLITICO, adding that it was not immediately clear why they were targeted by the hacking software”.

Parliamentary deputy spokeswoman Delphine Colard said that “traces found in the two devices” prompted an email appeal urging members to check their phones.

These revelations follow earlier incidents with other European Parliament members targeted with spyware. Researchers revealed in 2022 that the phones of politicians of the Catalan independence movement were infected with Pegasus and Candiru hacking tools.

In 2022, Greek member of the EU Parliament and opposition leader Nikos Androulakis was among a list of Greek political and public figures confirmed to have been targeted with Predator, another spyware tool. European Parliament’s President Roberta Metsola previously also faced an attempted hacking using spyware.

Russian hackers tried to access the electronic systems of the Lithuanian army in early February 2024, but the intrusion was identified and thwarted.