EU officials have been targeted as part of a spyware campaign, according to reports from Reuters.

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders was among five officials from the EU Commission who had devices infected. Reports have suggested that the malware in question was ForcedEntry, a piece of spyware developed by the same company behind Pegasus.

The EU Commission became aware of the attack in November, with the news confirmed in a recent report from Reuters. Back then, the Commission was alerted after Apple sent a mass batch of messages to iPhone users warning them that they had been “targeted by state-sponsored attackers”.

However, the identity of the attacker is still unknown, or whether any sensitive information was stolen as part of the operation.

The Pegasus spyware was originally developed by Israeli company NSO Group to target criminal organisations and terrorists. However, it has since been used by authoritarian regimes to target dissenting voices, such as opposition politicians and journalists.

The software can infect iOS and Android devices, with functionality that includes recording calls, copying messages, tracking location and secretly filming users – 24 hours a day.

Recommended

• The 11 most expensive NFTs ever sold
• New UK grant to help support next generation of tech startups
• How can digitisation help healthcare delivery in Scotland?

In summer last year, ‘Pegasus Project’ released a list of around 50,000 phone numbers believed to be of interest to authoritarian leaders and targeted by the malware. This included heads of media organisations, politicians and government officials.

The EU, in February, launched a committee to investigate the use of the software after evidence suggested that critics of the Polish and Hungarian governments had been targeted.

In a statement, NSO claimed that it was not responsible for the hacking attempts, and that the described attack on the EU officials “could not have happened with NSO’s tools”.

Get the latest news from DIGIT direct to your inbox

Our newsletter covers the latest technology and IT news from Scotland and beyond, as well as in-depth features and exclusive interviews with leading figures and rising stars.

To subscribe, click here.