The European Commission said it had found signs that the phones of some of its top officials had been hacked by the Israeli Pegasus spyware program.

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said in a letter to European legislator Sophie Entfeld dated July 25 that Apple had informed him in November 2021 of a possible hack of his mobile phone using Pegasus software.

The Israeli group "NSO", owner of the "Pegasus" spyware program based in Israel, was the subject of controversy over the past year, after media revealed that governments targeted opponents of this program, which is able to operate cameras and microphones of mobile phones and steal their data without the knowledge of their owners.

Reynders said in his letter that an internal investigation had failed to "confirm that Pegasus succeeded in penetrating the personal or professional devices" of him or other EU officials.

But he added that "several checks of devices led to the discovery of indications of breaches" - a term used by security researchers to indicate evidence of a breach - noting that "it is impossible to attribute these signals to a specific perpetrator with certainty."

For security reasons, the letter did not give further details about the outcome of the commission's investigation, which is still ongoing.

And MP Sophie Entfeld is a member of a commission of inquiry in the European Parliament looking into accusations of use of the program by the bloc's governments, notably in Hungary, Poland and Spain.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledged last month to tighten control over the country's security services after the scandal of using Pegasus software to hack politicians' phones.

The Canadian Internet security laboratory, Citizen Lab, was the first to shed light on the Pegasus program last April when it revealed its use to hack the phones of 60 people linked to the Catalan separatist movement.

Reynders said the commission sent requests for more information to Hungary, Poland and Spain about their use of Pegasus.

Budapest and Warsaw responded that the software was used for legitimate national security reasons.