The unidentified suspect is believed to be an employee and shareholder of Intellexa, a company that distributed the Predator spyware. Officers from the country’s cybercrime unit, who led the arrest, reportedly confiscated the suspect’s devices as well as other hardware and hard discs. In recent months, police have raided six companies, including the Athens offices of Krikel, another company linked to Predator. There has been turmoil in Greece’s political sphere following the August 2022 revelation that the country’s intelligence agency had wiretapped several high-level government officials, businessmen, and journalists.
Invasive Spyware Used to Target Several Key Figures
Macedonia-based Cytrox developed the Predator spyware. According to a research paper by the European Parliament’s Think Tank, victims are tricked into clicking a phishing link that allows the spyware to infect their device. “It [Predator] allows operators to monitor every aspect of a target’s phone, including calls, messages, photos and videos,” the paper said. Greek authorities used Predator to spy on several high-profile targets, including journalist Thanasis Koukakis, the leader of Greece’s PASOK-KINAL party Nikos Androulakis, former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, and other top-ranking government officials. Last week, Greece’s chief prosecutor Isidoros Ntogiakos said the nation’s privacy watchdog “cannot conduct audits on telecommunication companies to find out which citizens are under surveillance.” If it did so, there would be criminal penalties, Ntogiakos added. In light of the wiretapping revelation, the head of Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP), Panagiotis Kontoleon, who admitted to spying on Koukakis with Predator, has been forced to resign, along with his aide Grigoris Dimitriadis. While he insists he was unaware of the wiretapping operating, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been largely blamed for the scandal. Members of the opposition have since demanded a new round of elections in the country.
European Commission and Parliament Have Kept Silent
The European Commission and European Parliament say they are following the scandal closely. However, they have largely been silent about it. Members of Greek opposition parties have criticized the silence of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Greek Vice-President Margaritis Schinnas. Spying on journalists and illegal surveillance of cabinet members is a breach of European Union (EU) values and the principles of the EU Treaty, Hannes Heide, the S&D coordinator of the European Parliament, told EURACTIV. According to Heide, Greece’s handling of the situation indicates that the country is “on an advanced path towards an autocratic state.” One of the victims of the wiretapping scandal, Giorgos Kyrtsos, a Greek member of the EU Parliament, shared a letter he wrote to European Parliament President Robert Metsola on Twitter earlier this week. In the letter, Kyrtsos said the Greek PM has attempted to convince Greek citizens that “wiretapping is part of European public life,” and this severely undermines the country’s privacy watchdog. Kyrtsos said he feels his privacy was “violated by the wiretapping of Greek authorities” and is preparing a case for the European Court. Greece is the latest European country to be embroiled in a spyware scandal. Last year, Spanish authorities announced the discovery of the Pegasus spyware on the devices of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles. And in February 2022, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) asked for an EU-wide ban on Pegasus.
Greek Spyware Scandals
This is not the first time a spyware scandal has rocked Greece. In 2019, The Guardian reported that Cyprus police arrested three employees of covert intelligence firm WiSpear over suspicions that they used a high-tech van to hijack WhatsApp accounts on devices within 200 meters. Cyprus is a small island politically divided into two: a Turkish Cypriot and a Greek Cypriot. Interestingly, WiSpear is also owned by the same person who founded Intellexa. Although spyware is becoming increasingly common, it is illegal in most countries to access a person’s device without their knowledge or consent. Are you interested in learning how to protect your device from spyware? Check out our guide to spyware. Our article on mobile spyware also contains valuable information on how to know if your phone is being monitored.
