PASOK-KINAL leader and member of the European Parliament Nikos Androulakis filed a criminal complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court in Athens on Tuesday morning, complaining that there have been attempts to trap his mobile phone with the Predator spyware.
Androulakis, reportedly discovered that somebody tried to infect his phone with the Predator spyware by making use of the European Parliament service to detect spyware in MEPs phones.
A detailed check of his phone showed he received a message in Greek on 21 Sept. 2021, short before the race for KINAL leadership would start. The sms was inviting him to click a link, for which the Citizens Lab of the University of Toronto has said it is used as bait to install the Predator spyware.
Androulakis never clicked on it.
On 28 June 2022, Androulakis made use of the EP service for precautionary reasons, the results were delivered a few days ago. The first check carried out on his mobile revealed the presence of a suspicious link connected to the illegal Predator surveillance software.
Predator is a surveillance tool that gives its operator full and permanent access to the target’s device. Predator allows the operator to extract passwords, files, photos, web browsing history, contacts as well as identity data such as mobile device information.
Following EP’s relevant security protocol, which was immediately activated, a copy of the device was created so that a more detailed check could be carried out. Then, following a proposal from the competent services of the European Parliament, an additional check was carried out. All checks confirmed the Predator link.
Exiting the Court building on Tuesday, Androulakis said: “There was an attempt to trap my mobile phone with the Predator software. It is my democratic duty and not a personal matter to reveal who is behind these sick practices and for whom they act.”
This alarming revelation comes a few months after Greek journalist Thanasis Koukakis financial editor of CNN Greece and regular contributor to local and international media outlets, discovered that he had been the target of surveillance through Predator between July and Sept. 2021
