European Commission

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2025: The European Commission provides employees with "disposable phones and laptops" for visits to the United States

In mid-April 2025, it became known that the European Commission provides its employees visiting the United States for official purposes with "disposable laptops and phones." This is done in order to reduce the risk of possible espionage.

According to the Financial Times, the European Commission recommends that all its employees traveling to the United States turn off mobile devices at the border and place them in special cases that exclude access, for example, if the owners leave the gadgets unattended. U.S. Border Patrol officials have the authority to seize the phones and computers of people entering the country to check their contents. There have been reports that some individuals have been denied entry for comments on social media or material critical of the Trump administration.

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Фото: Freepik

The European Commission told the Financial Times that no written instructions were given for the use of disposable phones, but explained that it had updated its safety recommendations for employees traveling to the United States. The European Commission is concerned that the US "may infiltrate" its information systems, one official said.

The publication says that the use of disposable or completely cleared of information equipment is a common practice for those employees of the European Commission who visit China some others. states Against the background of the cooling of relations between Washington and Europe after the return of Donald Trump to the White House, the European Commission began to apply this practice when employees travel to the United States. As The Register adds,,,, the Germany Denmark Finland Netherlands Ireland and changed their travel recommendations for citizens who go to the United States.^[1]

2022: Financing of Ukraine during the military special operation of Russia

Sources of funding for the government of Ukraine during the military special operation of Russia in mid-April 2022

2021

EC fell victim to Israeli spyware

Senior officials of the The European commission in 2021 were are attacked espionage ON production of a certain the Israeli company. This became known on April 11, 2022.

In particular, the victims of the espionage program were Belgian politician Didier Reynders, who has been the European Commissioner of Justice and the Rule of Law since 2019, and at least four other EC members.

The EC became aware of the cyber attacks after their victims, who own the iPhone, received appropriate notifications from Apple in November 2021.

The source was unable to establish whether anyone was behind the cyber attacks, or whether these cyber attacks were successful.

As information security experts previously reported, thousands of iPhone owners who received notifications from Apple in February-September 2021 that their devices could have been hacked by hackers working for the government were attacked with ForcedEntry malware.

ForcedEntry is a high-tech tool from Israeli commercial spyware maker NSO Group that allows intelligence agencies to remotely seize control of the iPhone. The lesser-known Israeli spyware provider QuaDream also sold very similar tools to its government customers.

According to representatives of the NSO Group, the company is not responsible for the hacks, and such attacks "are not possible^[2] tools as^[3].

Creation of a single group in the EU to combat hackers

At the end of June 2021, the European Commission created a new unified group to combat hackers as part of the EU Cybersecurity Strategy, so that all member states are ready for collective work and active exchange of information. Read more here.

2020: Allocation of €600 million to Ukraine to combat COVID-19

In early December 2020, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the European Commission had allocated €600 million in macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. These funds will be used to combat the consequences of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Zelensky thanked the head of the EC Ursula von der Leyen (Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen) and said that the funds provided are "a clear sign that the European Union supports macroeconomic stability and the course of Ukraine's reforms." Read more here.