European Parliament member claims he was targeted by dangerous spyware
Daniel Freund, a German politician who serves with the Greens as a European Parliament (EP) member, says he was targeted by commercial spyware, possibly Candiru.
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Daniel Freund, a German politician who serves with the Greens as a European Parliament (EP) member, says he was targeted by commercial spyware, possibly Candiru.
Freund posted on X that an attempt to plant spyware on his mobile phone happened on May 27th, two weeks before the EP elections, when he received an email from “someone who asked for my support.”
He later told Politico that the actor behind the email claimed to be a female student at Kyiv International University who wanted Freund to write a short message to share with classmates. However, Freund did not click the link, and cybersecurity experts later told him that it was “most likely the software Candiru used for the attack.”
Candiru is a secretive Israel-based company that sells spyware exclusively to governments. The spyware can infect and monitor iPhones, Androids, Macs, PCs, and cloud accounts. The vendor was observed utilizing privilege escalation vulnerabilities. According to Citizen Lab, the firm’s reported clients are located in Europe, the former Soviet Union, the Persian Gulf, Asia, and Latin America, including Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, and Qatar.
However, Freund believes that Hungary may be behind the attack. He is one of the most outspoken critics of Hungary’s long-serving prime minister, Viktor Orban, and the country is also a known spyware user.
On May 27th I was targeted with an attempt to plant spyware on my mobil phone.
undefined Daniel Freund (@daniel_freund) July 25, 2024
It came as an email from someone who asked for my support - and to click a link. I did not.
Cyber security experts tell me that most likely it was the software undefinedCandiruundefined used for the attack. /1
“Using “Candiru” is costly. I was told that one single attack can cost more than €1 million. So who was behind it? We don't know,” Freund’s post reads.
He’s not the first MEP that’s been targeted with spyware. In February, two other MEPs had spyware detected on their devices, and Politico reported that the European Commission prepared a document that may limit the governmental use of intrusive surveillance.
In 2023, the European Parliament, following revelations that several EU governments used the Pegasus spyware software against journalists, politicians, officials, and other public figures, set up a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of surveillance spyware.