The European Parliament’s inquiry committee investigating the use of surveillance software (PEGA) will visit Cyprus on November 1 apparently to establish whether the island is also involved in the recent eavesdropping scandal in Greece.
The connecting thread between the two countries is thought to be the use of Predator spyware software – deployed in Greece against opposition politician and former MEP Nikos Androulakis and journalist Thanasis Koukakis.
Cytrox, the company that developed the Predator spyware, has a Cyprus link since, amongst other, it was found that Israeli national Tal Dilian’s Limassol based company WS Wispear Systems Ltd had acquired Cytrox in 2018.
WS Wispear Systems Ltd – now renamed Passitoria Ltd – was implicated in the infamous ‘spy van’ affair in Cyprus in 2019.
The PEGA committee which is to spend two days in Cyprus have already examined various parameters of the surveillance issue.
And one of their findings so far is that the legal framework of the EU on essential monitoring practices and in particular of the 27 member states needs further regulation and tightening. Both in terms of the use of such software but also in the way such products are marketed.
