Source: https://cobaltstrike.net/2022/04/11/the-ec-has-become-a-victim-of-israeli-spyware/
Senior officials of the European Commission were attacked last year by spyware produced by an Israeli company. This is reported by Reuters with reference to its own sources and documentation, which the staff of the news agency managed to get acquainted with.
In particular, the victims of the espionage program were the Belgian politician Didier Reynders, who has been serving as the European Commissioner for Justice and the Rule of Law since 2019, and at least four other EC members.
The EC became aware of cyberattacks after their victims, who are iPhone owners, received corresponding notifications from Apple in November of last year.
The Reuters news agency has not been able to establish who is behind the cyberattacks, nor whether these cyberattacks were successful.
As previously reported by information security experts, thousands of iPhone owners who received notifications from Apple in February-September 2021 that their devices could have been hacked by hackers working for the government were attacked by ForcedEntry malware.
ForcedEntry is a high-tech tool from the Israeli manufacturer of commercial spyware NSO Group, which allows intelligence agencies to remotely seize control of the iPhone. A lesser-known Israeli spyware vendor, QuaDream, also sold very similar tools to its government clients.
According to representatives of the NSO Group, the company is not responsible for hacking, and such attacks are “impossible using NSO tools.”