The European Parliament Committee of Inquiry has found that some EU member states are Pegasus clients, while investigation the spyware allegations in Israel.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the committee learned that NSO, the corporation owning the spyware, has active contracts with 12 of the 27 European Union members.
The investigative committee’s visit to Israel included discussions with NSO employees, representatives of the Israeli Defense Ministry, and local experts.
Committee members included a Catalan legislator whose cell phone was hacked by an NSO customer, specifies the same source.
During their inquiry visit, the EU committee members attempted to identify NSO customers in Europe at present, but were “surprised” at the sheer number of European customers across 12 union countries.
“14 nations have done business with NSO in the past, and at least 12 are still using Pegasus for lawful interception of mobile calls,” according to an NSO response to the committee’s questions, quoted in Haaretz.
At times, there can be multiple clients from the same country, explained NSO, varying from law enforcement to intelligence agencies, all of whom are end-users, as the company did not cite contracts with governments.
Additionally, NSO did not disclose which EU countries are active or previous customers. Their client status, however, has not been refuted.
“If one company has 14 member states as customers, you can imagine the overall size of the industry,” wondered MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld, a member of the Pegasus inquiry committee.
The investigation has seemingly faced European legislators with the sheer, unexpected size of the industry, as they now believe that there is a “huge market for commercial spyware, and EU governments are very enthusiastic buyers,” the representative stated.
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