Pegasus spyware admittedly used in Hungary
November 10th, 2021A left-wing commentator is flabbergasted by the admission that the Hungarian authorities have in fact purchased the Pegasus spyware program.
Fidesz MP Lajos Kósa, chair of the Parliament’s Defence and Law Enforcement Committee announced that the committee investigated the allegations related to the use of the Pegasus spyware (see BudaPost through July 20), and found the government in no breach of any laws. After the meeting, Lajos Kósa also told reporters that the Pegasus software had been bought by the Interior Ministry.
Népszava’s Zoltán Batka finds it shocking that Lajos Kósa acknowledged the governmental purchase of the Pegasus software. The left-wing commentator suspects that Kósa’s remark was a slip of the tongue, bearing in mind that this piece of information was supposed to be classified. He notes that the Israeli NSO company selling Pegasus was blacklisted by the US government for malicious use of spyware. Batka also accuses the authorities of jeopardizing national security as a foreign company could potentially access the information gathered on supposedly 300 targets in Hungary.