European Parliament Pegasus Investigation Faces Resistance
An investigation by the European Parliament into use of Pegasus and other advanced smartphone spyware by European Union member countries is running into opposition from national governments, lamented Jeroen Lenaers, head of the investigative committee.
The Parliament overwhelmingly voted in March to form a PEGA committee after reports surfaced that authorities in Poland and maintains that it sells the spyware to authorized states for use in national security and law enforcement investigations. At its most advanced, Pegasus can infect a mobile device without a user having to click on a malicious link.
The advanced spyware gives its controllers access to everything that happens on a smartphone - the ability to read emails and texts, see photos and contact lists and even secretly turn on the microphone to record conversations. The committee’s intelligence-gathering efforts are proceeding slowly and with difficulty given noncooperation from countries including Poland and Hungary, said Lenaers during a Tuesday event in Brussels hosted by Politico.
