Greece's Surveillance Scandal
After a wire-tapping incident in Greece, Prime Minister Mitsotakis has banned surveillance devices nationally.
Within Greece, journalists, politicians, and businessmen have found their phones contaminated with the Predator malware, a virus which leaks information (including photos, passwords, calls and text messages) to the infector. It was recently discovered that this software has been leaking data to the State Intelligence Service. Consequently, the Prime Minister, Kryiakos Mitsotakis, has announced that he will be banning all spyware devices for surveillance.
All supposed victims of the malware service have declined to add a comment or acknowledge that their information was tracked by the service.
The State Intelligence Service was discovered to be observing opposing party’s leader via wiretap by Mitsotakis. This was after Mitsotakis accepted that he himself was a victim of the Predator. Although the entire affair was done under the noses of the government, yet the Prime Minister announces that this action was perfectly legal.
The connection between the wiretap and Predator malware is “just a coincidence” according to the Greek government. However, people suspect that Kryiakos himself is behind the Predator malware. Which, of course, he denies.
In an interview aired on television, Mitsotakis declared, “We will be the first country to tackle this problem and enact legislation that will explicitly ban the sale of such software in our country. No other country has done it. All countries have the same problem.”
He went on to claim that countless other countries have been going through similar issues. A strong example of this would be Pegasus, which has the same functionality as Predator. However, in addition, Pegasus is cheaper to produce and is able to use the camera and microphone of a device without the owner’s knowledge. Pegasus was created by an Israeli software company called NSO Group.
The goal of the Pegasus virus was said to be an infiltrator system that takes residence in people’s phones and acts as a listening device. Employees of El Faro, El Salvador's leading news outlet, find themselves being targets of the malware (similar to the matter in Greece). The problem has spread all the way to the Mexican government (as demonstrated by recently leaked emails) and is continuing to target activists and journalists in the process.
Internationally, politicians are racing to get this affair fixed up by the 2023 elections (seeing as successfully solving the Predator malware predicament will boost political campaigns).
Although the use of Predator was recently deemed illegal, Mitsotakis has offered no details on how the banning of spyware works. The Greek law enforcement has declared the necessity of spyware in solving cases and pursuing suspects, creating even more conflict among government officials.
Last year, the Pegasus malware was blacklisted by the Biden Administration. And in the process, America was prevented from interacting with NSO Group because the company was said to have acted against the wishes of United States foreign policy.
Greek reporter, Thanassis Koukakis, announces he was a target of the Predator. He became the focal point of the famous litigation which resulted in the recent restriction on surveillance. Fortunately, the United States have not yet been severely contaminated with this degree of intrusion and we can only hope that America continues to remain intact.
All supposed victims of the malware service have declined to add a comment or acknowledge that their information was tracked by the service.
The State Intelligence Service was discovered to be observing opposing party’s leader via wiretap by Mitsotakis. This was after Mitsotakis accepted that he himself was a victim of the Predator. Although the entire affair was done under the noses of the government, yet the Prime Minister announces that this action was perfectly legal.
The connection between the wiretap and Predator malware is “just a coincidence” according to the Greek government. However, people suspect that Kryiakos himself is behind the Predator malware. Which, of course, he denies.
In an interview aired on television, Mitsotakis declared, “We will be the first country to tackle this problem and enact legislation that will explicitly ban the sale of such software in our country. No other country has done it. All countries have the same problem.”
He went on to claim that countless other countries have been going through similar issues. A strong example of this would be Pegasus, which has the same functionality as Predator. However, in addition, Pegasus is cheaper to produce and is able to use the camera and microphone of a device without the owner’s knowledge. Pegasus was created by an Israeli software company called NSO Group.
The goal of the Pegasus virus was said to be an infiltrator system that takes residence in people’s phones and acts as a listening device. Employees of El Faro, El Salvador's leading news outlet, find themselves being targets of the malware (similar to the matter in Greece). The problem has spread all the way to the Mexican government (as demonstrated by recently leaked emails) and is continuing to target activists and journalists in the process.
Internationally, politicians are racing to get this affair fixed up by the 2023 elections (seeing as successfully solving the Predator malware predicament will boost political campaigns).
Although the use of Predator was recently deemed illegal, Mitsotakis has offered no details on how the banning of spyware works. The Greek law enforcement has declared the necessity of spyware in solving cases and pursuing suspects, creating even more conflict among government officials.
Last year, the Pegasus malware was blacklisted by the Biden Administration. And in the process, America was prevented from interacting with NSO Group because the company was said to have acted against the wishes of United States foreign policy.
Greek reporter, Thanassis Koukakis, announces he was a target of the Predator. He became the focal point of the famous litigation which resulted in the recent restriction on surveillance. Fortunately, the United States have not yet been severely contaminated with this degree of intrusion and we can only hope that America continues to remain intact.
Works Cited