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A former member of the European Parliament, Stelios Kouloglou, who was part of a committee investigating illegal phone hacking, found himself targeted by the very tools he was scrutinizing. Citizen Lab, a Canadian tech watchdog, reported that Kouloglou's phone was compromised at least three times between October 2022 and March 2023 using Pegasus spyware, developed by Israel's NSO Group.

Kouloglou, a Greek journalist-turned-lawmaker, expressed astonishment at the audacity of the attack. "I was not expecting that a PEGA member would be spied on by Pegasus," he told Reuters. "I was not expecting that they would be as reckless as that."

The European Parliament acknowledged the incident indirectly, stating its IT security services monitor threats and that spyware screening tools have been available to lawmakers since 2022. The Parliament's PEGA Committee had previously found that governments across the EU likely used spyware, with some uses deemed legitimate and others not.

NSO Group, the maker of Pegasus, maintains its tools are used for combating serious crime and national security. However, the company has a history of being accused of enabling intrusive surveillance of journalists, political opponents, and activists worldwide. NSO Group was blacklisted by the U.S. government in 2021 and has faced legal challenges, including a significant damages award from Meta Platforms, owner of WhatsApp, for hacking its platform.

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I was not expecting that a PEGA member would be spied on by Pegasus. I was not expecting that they would be as reckless as that.