ATHENS — Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced Monday that Greece would ban the sale of spyware after his government was accused in a news report of targeting dozens of prominent politicians, journalists and businessmen for surveillance, and judicial authorities launched an investigation.
The announcement is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted over the summer when Mr Mitsotakis admitted that Greek state intelligence had been monitoring an opposition party leader with a traditional wiretapping last year. That revelation came after the politician discovered he was also the target of a spyware program known as Predator.
The Greek government said the wiretapping was legal but never gave the reasons for it, and Mr Mitsotakis said it was done without his knowledge. The government has also claimed that it does not own or use the Predator spyware, and has maintained that the simultaneous targeting with a wiretap and Predator was coincidental.
Mr. Mitsotakis has dismissed allegations that he personally ran a Predator spyware program. “It’s an incredible lie,” he said. He insisted Greek intelligence was not using Predator, but said someone outside the government might be.
In a televised interview on Monday, he said: “We will be the first country to address this issue and enact legislation that explicitly bans the sale of such software in our country. No other country has done it. All countries have the same problem.”
Governments around the world are struggling to regulate the use of cybersurveillance tools, the most prominent of which is Pegasus, a high-performance offensive cybersurveillance spyware created by Israeli spyware company NSO Group. Predator is gaining fame worldwide as a cheaper and less regulated alternative. The powerful weapons infiltrate smartphones, blowing up their contents and turning them into listening and recording devices.
They have been used to hack into the phones of employees of El Salvador’s main news channel, El Faro, and the devices of high-ranking Palestinian diplomats. According to recently leaked emails, the Mexican government has also used spyware to compromise the phones of journalists and an activist.
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies say they need the spyware to stay ahead of criminals and terrorists, but it has proven difficult to regulate its use and ensure it is not used against political opponents and journalists, even in Europe, where protection should be strong. Last year, the Biden administration blacklisted Pegasus, barring US companies from doing business with NSO for acting “contrary to US national security or foreign policy interests.” .
Much about the situation in Greece remains obscure. Authorities have labeled the use of Predator illegal, but not its sale. Mr. Mitsotakis did not provide details on how a ban on the sale of spyware would work, or how it would affect spyware use.
For months, Greek authorities ignored calls from journalists and opposition parties to investigate Predator maker Intellexa, which moved its headquarters from Cyprus to Greece in 2021.
Greek investigative reporter Thanassis Koukakis revealed he was hacked with Predator last year, and also claimed he was being monitored by Greek intelligence, a claim that has not been officially confirmed but is the subject of an investigation.
Socialist party leader Nikos Androulakis, who is a member of the European Parliament, said Parliament’s technical service in Brussels had discovered that his phone had been the target of a text message containing Predator malware. Mr Androulakis did not take the bait.
An investigation has been launched into the case of Mr Androulakis.
Mr Mitsotakis acknowledged that the Greek State Intelligence Service had been monitoring Mr Androulakis with a traditional wiretapping under a special order. The surveillance was apparently ordered for reasons of national security. The check ended without any action from the authorities.
On Sunday, Greek news magazine Documento reported that a shady surveillance network obeying Mr Mitsotakis had targeted Antonis Samaras, a former conservative prime minister; the current foreign and finance ministers; and other cabinet members seen as potential rivals to Mr Mitsotakis in a potential leadership challenge. (The next Greek elections are to be held before the summer of 2023.)
According to the report, the surveillance was carried out by the Greek state intelligence agency and had used Predator. The news magazine cited as sources two unnamed individuals who played key roles in the surveillance, but provided no evidence to substantiate the allegations.
The allegations sparked political upheaval, with government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou saying they were not based on any evidence and describing the magazine’s publisher Kostas Vaxevanis as a “national slanderer”.
Vaxevanis, an investigative journalist widely seen as having close ties to the left-wing opposition party Syriza, said he had hard evidence, including taped conversations, and would reveal everything in due course. On Monday, he visited Greece’s Supreme Court after the prosecutor ordered an investigation into the claims.
Syriza’s spokesman, Nasos Iliopoulos, criticized the authorities for failing to provide convincing answers regarding the work of Greek intelligence and for failing to investigate Intellexa.
The claims in Documento came after a European Parliament committee investigating the use of surveillance malware called on Greek authorities to conduct a deeper investigation.
The results of a Greek parliamentary inquiry were inconclusive, and ruling party lawmakers found no evidence of wrongdoing. The opposition called it a cover.
Niki Kitsantonis reported from Athens, and Matina Stevis-Gridneff From New York.
