World

How the Global Spyware Industry Spiraled Out of Control


Located just off the coast of East Africa, Madagascar is the fourth poorest country in the world. It fights corruption, especially in the mining and oil industries that bring in billions of dollars each year for corporations. Malagasy officials did not comment.

In Greece, the Predator is also the center of a domestic political spiral.

The story begins in April, when the Greek store Inside story reported that Predator was used to infect a local investigative reporter’s phone. The University of Toronto Citizens Lab discovered the infection forensically. Two opposition politicians soon confirmed that they had also been targeted, each with forensic evidence to back up the claims.

All three suspect that the Greek state ordered their surveillance and have filed lawsuits. Thanasis Koukakis, an investigative reporter, sued Mr. Dilian and his Intellexa associates.

The conservative prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, denied ordering surveillance using the Predator and insisted that the Greek government did not own spyware.

Even so, Mr. Mitsotakis’ grandson, who has political oversight over the national intelligence agency, resigned over the spyware scandal in August, although he denied any role in there. At the same time, the prime minister fired the director of national intelligence.

The same month, Intellexa lay off most of the staff are based in Athens.

In November, Mr. Mitsotakis admitted that someone was running covert operations using the Predator inside Greece – he just didn’t know who.

“Just to be clear, I have never claimed — and the government has never claimed — that there was no hack and no power used the Predator software,” he said, adding: “There is illegal espionage across Europe.”

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