EU Watchdog Calls for Ban on Israel's Surveillance Tool Pegasus

The logo of Israeli cyber firm NSO Group is seen at one of its branches in the Arava Desert, southern Israel July 22, 2021. (Reuters)
The logo of Israeli cyber firm NSO Group is seen at one of its branches in the Arava Desert, southern Israel July 22, 2021. (Reuters)
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EU Watchdog Calls for Ban on Israel's Surveillance Tool Pegasus

The logo of Israeli cyber firm NSO Group is seen at one of its branches in the Arava Desert, southern Israel July 22, 2021. (Reuters)
The logo of Israeli cyber firm NSO Group is seen at one of its branches in the Arava Desert, southern Israel July 22, 2021. (Reuters)

The European Union's data protection watchdog called on Tuesday for a ban on the controversial spyware tool Pegasus, developed by Israeli-based NSO Group.

The EDPS said use of Pegasus might lead to an "unprecedented level of intrusiveness, able to interfere with the most intimate aspects of our daily lives."

Israel has come under global pressure over allegations that Pegasus has been abused by some foreign client governments to spy on human rights activists, journalists and politicians.

NSO has said it could not confirm or deny any existing or potential customers for Pegasus. It said it does not operate the system once sold to its governmental customers nor is it involved in any way in the system´s operation.

"A ban on the development and the deployment of spyware with the capability of Pegasus in the EU would be the most effective option to protect our fundamental rights and freedoms", the EDPS said.

"At the center of debate on tools like Pegasus should not only be the use of the technology, but the importance we attribute to the right to privacy."

An investigation published last year by 17 media organizations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, said the spyware had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists on a global scale.



Windows’ Infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death’ Will Soon Turn Black

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Windows’ Infamous ‘Blue Screen of Death’ Will Soon Turn Black

A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Nearly every Windows user has had a run in with the infamous “Blue Screen of Death” at some point in their computing life. Now, after more than 40 years of being set against a very recognizable blue, the updated error message will soon be displayed across a black background.

The changes to the notorious error screen come as part of broader efforts by Microsoft to improve the resiliency of the Windows operating system in the wake of last year’s CrowdStrike incident, which crashed millions of Windows machines worldwide.

“Now it’s easier than ever to navigate unexpected restarts and recover faster,” Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft wrote in a Wednesday announcement.

As part of that effort, Microsoft says it's “streamlining” what users experience when encountering “unexpected restarts” that cause disruptions. And that means a makeover to the infamous error screen.

Beyond the now-black background, Windows' new “screen of death” has a slightly shorter message. It's also no longer accompanied by a frowning face and instead shows a percentage completed for the restart process.

Microsoft says this “simplified” user interface for unexpected restarts will be available later this summer on all of its Windows 11 (version 24H2) devices.

And for PCs that may not restart successfully, Microsoft on Wednesday also said it is adding a “quick machine recovery” mechanism. This will be particularly useful for during a widespread outage, the tech giant noted, as Microsoft “can broadly deploy targeted remediations” and automate fixes with this new mechanism “without requiring complex manual intervention from IT.”

Microsoft said this quick machine recovery will also be “generally available” later this summer on Window 11 with additional capabilities set to launch later in the year.