Despite the waves of refugees flooding Poland and Hungary following the war in Ukraine, the EU decided this morning (Thursday) by an overwhelming majority to set up a commission of inquiry into the use of NSO’s spyware program, focusing on Hungary and Poland. The wording of the announcement was aimed primarily at the two countries in Eastern Europe, but may also examine what is happening in Germany, where several security authorities have been NSO customers for several years. The committee will examine use that goes beyond the limits of EU law for improper purposes such as monitoring journalists, politicians and lawyers, as well as the legislative framework and its suitability for use in the invasive product.
According to an investigation led by human rights organizations Amnesty and Forbidden Stories last July in collaboration with several newspapers in the US and Europe, the Hungarian government led by Victor Urban tracked down journalists, lawyers and politicians through the improper use of the Pegasus spyware. He reportedly covered sensitive issues related to foreign news and his phone, according to the report, was hacked at least 11 times during 2019. One of the articles in which he dealt with one of the break-ins dealt with its worldwide expansion in a Russian-backed bank. , Considered a bitter political rival of the Urban administration, was a target for surveillance at a sensitive time when the administration was working to close it.
Further investigations revealed that Poland acquired the Pegasus system as early as 2017 and was used, according to research laboratory Citizen Love, to hack into the phone of an opposition man during one of the country’s election campaigns, as well as a lawyer representing the former Polish prime minister.