Senior EU officials targeted with Israeli firm NSO Group's spyware: Report

Spyware designed by the Israeli firm NSO Group was used to target senior European Commission officials last year, according to a report citing two European Union (EU) officials.

The report says among those targeted was a senior Belgian statesman Didier Reynders, who has served as the European justice commissioner since 2019.

At least four other EU staffers were also targeted by the powerful Israeli spyware, the report cites sources familiar with the matter as saying.

Two EU officials confirmed to Reuters that staffers at the commission had been targeted but did not elaborate.

They said the commission was alerted to the spying scheme following messages issued by the US-based Apple Corporation to thousands of iPhone owners in November.

The messages informed them that they had been "targeted by state-sponsored attackers."

It marked the first time Apple had sent a mass alert to users that they were in the crosshairs of government hackers.

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The warnings sparked concerns at the commission, the report cites sources as saying. They also noted that IT experts examined the smartphones of some of the officials for signs of compromise but the results were inconclusive.

This is while the European Parliament is set to launch a committee of inquiry to probe the use of surveillance software in European member states on April 19, according to Sophie in 't Veld, the EU lawmaker who championed the committee's creation, as cited in the report.

Veld noted that she was unaware of the European Commission officials being targeted, describing the development as "dynamite” and adding they need to “get to the bottom of this."

The committee was formed following reports that senior opposition politicians in Poland had their phones hacked by Israeli spyware and prominent critics and journalists in Hungary were also targeted.

Polish officials and a Hungarian ruling party lawmaker have verified that their respective governments purchased Israeli spyware, although both nations have denied wrongdoing concerning allegations of domestic espionage.

According to the report, in a November 26 email, a senior tech staffer at the European Commission sent a message to colleagues with background about Israeli hacking tools and a request to be on the lookout for additional warnings from Apple.

"Given the nature of your responsibilities, you are a potential target," the staffer said in the email, as quoted in the report.

It has not yet been determined, however, who used the Israeli spyware to target Reynders and his Brussels-based colleagues, and whether the attempts were successful.

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Security researchers have noted that the recipients of the warnings were targeted between February and September 2021 using ForcedEntry, advanced software used by Israeli cyber surveillance vendor NSO Group to help foreign espionage agencies remotely and invisibly take control of iPhones.

A smaller Israeli spyware vendor named QuaDream also sold a nearly identical tool to government clients, reports said.

NSO claimed in a statement that it was not responsible for the hacking attempts.

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