Greek authorities fine Israeli owned spyware company Intellexa

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The Data Protection Authority of Greece fined Israeli-owned spyware firm Intellexa 50,000 euros on Monday. The company, which is founded by Tal Dilian, a former Israeli intelligence officer, is accused of refusing to comply with an ongoing inquiry into the use of spyware in Greece.

The Data Protection Authority initiated an investigation last June after malware was discovered in the phones of high-ranking Greek officials and was used to track these persons' movements and data without their knowledge.

It stated in an official report that it performed an audit at the address listed as Intellexa's Athens headquarters, only to discover an accounting firm working for the company. The Authority then audited Intellexa's main office on the outskirts of Athens, which was discovered to be vacant.

The Greek Police raided the headquarters of Intellexa, a network of enterprises created by Tal Dilian, the ex-commander of a high secret Israeli spy unit, last December. Intellexa is the company behind the Predator spyware software, which is used for mobile phone monitoring.

Greece is still embroiled in a big political controversy over Predator spyware revelations, which began in April last year when Thanasis Koukakis, a notable investigative journalist, unmasked that his phone had been tapped with the software.

The spyware was later discovered on the phone of one of the country's most prominent opposition leaders, Nikos Androulakis.

According to the Data Protection Authority's statement, Intellexa has unreasonably delayed responding to its demands and has not supplied material in its possession pertinent to the investigation, which could shed more light on the "Greek Watergate" scandal wreaking havoc on the country.

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Not an isolated incident 

Israeli-led spyware industry has been embroiled in a seemingly never-ending spate of extremely prominent controversies. Revelations that it sells its spyware to authoritarian regimes, that its products have been used to spy on journalists, activists, politicians, and even potentially world leaders, and accusations that it played a role in murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death have put it at the center of international criticism.

Pegasus

In November 2021, the United States placed "Israel's" spyware maker NSO Group, the corporation behind the notorious Pegasus, on its list of restricted companies.

Read more: Le Monde: Moroccan Intelligence Spied on Macron via Pegasus

NSO Group's Pegasus was exposed as having been used by oppressive regimes to spy on journalists, human rights activists, dissidents, and even heads of state.

Washington also targeted another Israeli company, Candiru, a Singapore-based Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE (COSEINC).

According to an investigation led by The Washington Post and 16 media partners, Pegasus is military-grade spyware leased by the Israeli firm to governments who used it in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, and business executives, among others.

Read more: Bin Salman’s “Cyberweapon”: Not Only Against Saudis

Smartphones infected with Israeli spyware would become pocket-spying devices, allowing the user to read the target's messages, look through their photos, track their location, and even turn on their camera without their knowledge.

Pegasus has also "enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression, which is the practice of authoritarian governments targeting dissidents, journalists, and activists outside of their sovereign borders to silence dissent," the US Commerce Department said in a statement.

Graphite

Last December, US senior senators said they will look into the government's purchase and use of strong spyware developed by two Israeli hacking firms, as Congress passed legislation in recent days aimed at limiting the spread of hacking tools, NYT reported.

Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, wrote to the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration last week, requesting extensive information about the agency's use of Graphite, yet another Israeli spyware tool developed by Paragon.

In further detail, Graphite, like the more well-known Israeli hacking tool Pegasus, can infiltrate targets' mobile phones and extract texts, videos, photographs, and other data, the report noted.

Predator

In September of 2022, Israeli-made spyware, Predator, was reportedly used to hack into a Greek ex-minister's phone in the third case of a Greek national being targeted with the malware. 

Predator and Pegasus spyware are very similar to each other, with the latter made by the competing and more famous cyber firm NSO Group. Like Pegasus, Predator allows the operator to access the entire contents of the target’s phone, as well as secretly activate its camera and phone and recording.

Greece is involved in a massive political scandal over revelations involving spyware, which was found on the phone of a prominent investigative journalist and the leader of the country's social democratic party. 

The head of Greece's intelligence service Panagiotis Kontoleon stepped down amid increased scrutiny of the agency's surveillance practices, including an accusation by an opposition party leader that his phone was bugged by Predator in 2021.