Person behind bugged phones still a mystery
More than 15 months after the Data Protection Authority started an investigation on the bugged cellphones of public officials and other individuals, it is still not yet clear who sent some of the spyware-infected messages.
The authority’s findings appear to suggest that the person or persons who sent the infected messages used, in some cases, the cellphone number of an important government official, Grigoris Dimitriadis, the former head of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ secretariat, to trap their intended targets into following links that would result in the Predator spyware installing itself on their phones.
In 11 of these cases, the messages involved were ostensibly sent by Dimitriadis to well-wishers that had wished him a happy name day. The identically worded messages contained a “thank you” card that was infected with the spyware. Some dispute the authority’s suggestion that Dimitriadis himself was not involved.
The privacy watchdog’s findings have been sent to judicial authorities. Recently, the investigation has been upgraded, with a Supreme Court assistant prosecutor taking over the case from two lower court colleagues.
The other messages being looked into contained links about current issues through which the spyware was installed. The Data Protection Authority’s investigation concluded that the sender’s personal data had been modified, strongly implying that the actual senders misrepresented themselves.
Contacted by Kathimerini, the authority did not get into details, replying that “this phase of the [messages’] examination has been completed.”
