Just for context, some european contries have been abusing spyware such as Pegasus so much Israeli firms have cut ties with them, one such example below with Italy. Others have pointed out Greece and Poland. It's quite laughable that a member of the EU parliament would be subject to the same kind of spying activities innocent journalists, activists and possibly normal people are, all of that by the member states of the union, directly contributing to the Israeli companies developing and spreading malware.
Espionage Against the European Parliament
51–60 of 145 posts
Re: Espionage Against the European Parliament
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> Further validating our finding of targeting, our forensic analysis shows Kouloglou received multiple Apple threat notifications about targeting with mercenary spyware on three occasions: March 2, 2023, August 29, 2023, and April 10, 2024. It is important to note that threat notifications from Apple and other companies are not real-time alerts. They are typically sent to users in batches, often months or more after…
"he did not recall receiving the Apple notifications" so he didn't notice them.
I could be wrong here, but I can’t see any way of viewing old notifications.
It isn’t hard to accidentally dismiss one then wonder what it was. Why there isn’t there an interface for looking back?
Edit: below it says there are emails and notices on web login.
Re: Espionage Against the European Parliament
#53> In May 2026, Kouloglou contacted the Citizen Lab and we conducted a forensic analysis of artifacts from his iPhone. We found with high confidence that his device was successfully infected with Pegasus spyware on or around October 21, 2022, and again on March 6 and 7, 2023.
I wonder if we can forensically analyze our own phones to see if some nutjob with Pegasus has targeted us as well.
Looks like we can: https://docs.mvt.re/en/latest/
Re: Espionage Against the European Parliament
#54Re: Espionage Against the European Parliament
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> Further validating our finding of targeting, our forensic analysis shows Kouloglou received multiple Apple threat notifications about targeting with mercenary spyware on three occasions: March 2, 2023, August 29, 2023, and April 10, 2024. It is important to note that threat notifications from Apple and other companies are not real-time alerts. They are typically sent to users in batches, often months or more after…
"he did not recall receiving the Apple notifications" so he didn't notice them.
Do they send them via notification infrastructure or email? Personally I almost never check the email associated with my Apple ID so I would miss those. But if all my Apple devices were notifying me and I had a badge in Settings.app, I’d notice.
Then again, you’d think that’s the kinda thing malware developers would spend some time learning to hide from the user.
Re: Espionage Against the European Parliament
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US does not spy on Five Eyes government leadership or that of Israel. And perhaps more: in the wake of Snowden, which obliterated many diplomatic relationships the U.S. has with other countries, Obama issued a directive that the U.S. would not monitor heads of state and government of close friends and allies (even outside Five Eyes) unless there was a compelling national security reason. As far as we know that di…
> The US does not spy on Five Eyes government leadership or that of Israel. Doubt. > unless there was a compelling national security reason There always is.
> Doubt
Can you substantiate your doubt with even one piece of hard evidence?
Re: Espionage Against the European Parliament
#57Just for context, some european contries have been abusing spyware such as Pegasus so much Israeli firms have cut ties with them, one such example below with Italy. Others have pointed out Greece and Poland. It's quite laughable that a member of the EU parliament would be subject to the same kind of spying activities innocent journalists, activists and possibly normal people are, all of that by the member states of t…
Cutting ties after there has been an outcry is damage controll. I would assume that the product is still available under another sub vendor to the same people.
Re: Espionage Against the European Parliament
#58Re: Espionage Against the European Parliament
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The US does not spy on Five Eyes government leadership or that of Israel. Doubt. > unless there was a compelling national security reason There always is.
> Doubt Can you substantiate your doubt with even one piece of hard evidence?
Sure. The NSA exists, and it routinely violates the rights of the USA's own citizens, the ones that actually have constitutional rights. The idea that it would suddenly draw the line on foreigners is just absurd.
Re: Espionage Against the European Parliament
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
"he did not recall receiving the Apple notifications" so he didn't notice them.
That is kind of surprising given he is on the comittee investigating pegasus. I'd assume someone on the comittee would be paying much more attention to this than a normal person. I wonder what triggered him to suspect he was hacked then. Since presumably something triggered him to have his phone forensically investigated.
Or that Apple could either run searches on the names of affected users against publicly known members of government or have close relationship with governments to flag exactly this.