Greece soon to ban selling of spyware

• Greece will soon prohibit the sale of spyware.
• The move comes in response to a newspaper allegation that more than 30 individuals were subject to state surveillance via phone virus.
• Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of Greece, called the story “shameful and disgusting”.

Greece will soon prohibit the selling of spyware, the conservative government announced on Monday, in response to a newspaper allegation that more than 30 individuals, including politicians and businesspeople, were subject to state surveillance via phone virus.

Sunday, the left-leaning Documento daily published a list of individuals whose phones were supposedly infected with Predator software. It cited two sources who, supposedly on behalf of the government, participated in the surveillance.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of Greece, stated that the story was baseless because it provided no evidence that the government was behind the spying. In an interview with ANT1 broadcaster, Mitsotakis stated, “It’s a tremendous deception.”

Earlier on Monday, government spokesperson Giannis Oikonomou stated that the Greek government had not employed nor purchased such malware, and he added that judicial authorities will investigate the latest report.

He told reporters that Greece will shortly introduce legislation prohibiting the selling of spyware. He stated, “We won’t allow any shadow to remain on issues that poison Greek society.”

The Documento report was the most recent development in a wiretapping controversy that provoked political outrage in Greece, as the European Union scrutinizes the use and sale of spyware more closely. A Greek prosecutor initiated an investigation early this year.

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The majority of the accused targets, including a former conservative prime minister and the current foreign and finance ministers, declined to comment or claimed ignorance of the topic.

“It is shameful and disgusting for someone to imply that the prime minister is monitoring his foreign minister. And extremely dangerous,” Mitsotakis warned.

“We are not sure who is managing those centres. What we are absolutely certain about is that it wasn’t EYP (Greece’s intelligence service). And obviously I wasn’t involved.”

In July, Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the socialist opposition, filed a complaint with the highest court’s prosecutors regarding an effort to install surveillance software on his mobile phone.

The administration, which faces elections in 2023, stated at the time that the surveillance, which was not done using contested spyware programs, was authorized by a prosecutor and hence lawful.

It was never clear why Androulakis was the target, and Mitsotakis stated that he was unaware of the attack and would never have authorized it.

A Greek prosecutor is also investigating claims made by a journalist that the Greek intelligence service infected his smartphone with spying software.

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