επισύνδεση
Judging from what I’ve read, the word is unfamiliar even to Greeks. Word’s auto-correct also flags it as being either incorrect or non-existent. When talking about phones, σύνδεση and αποσύνδεση are ‘connection’ and ‘disconnection’ respectively, but επισύνδεση is an add-on, specifically wire-tapping. It’s not necessarily illegal if a warrant is issued, but the question for the Greek government to answer is: why were between 40 and 50 approvals for επισυνδέσεις being issued daily? Are there so many threats to the state to justify a thousand wiretaps a month? In what way did the (then) PASOK leadership candidate, Nikos Androulakis, constitute a threat to the Greek polity?
Βικιλεξικό defines επισύνδεση as “(νεολογισμός, πληροφορική) παράλληλη σύνδεση κάποιου σε επικοινωνιακό δίκτυο με τέτοιο τρόπο, ώστε να παρακολουθεί και να λαμβάνει όσα στοιχεία της επικοινωνίας αυτής επιθυμεί, χωρίς ο ίδιος να γίνεται φανερός ή αντιληπτός”. It also gives συνακρόαση as a synonym.
Another word used in the current scandal is παρακολούθηση, meaning ‘surveillance’.
And in the old days, the word for bug – actual and electronic – was κοριός. No need for bugs nowadays when all you need to do is send a rogue text message. This is what happened in the case of the journalist, Thanasis Koukakis, who was wire-tapped in June 2020. He found out a couple of months later, complained, and the επισύνδεση became a simple σύνδεση again!! However, in July 2021, according to the New York Times, “he [Koukakis] received a text message from an unknown number. “Thanasis, do you know about this?” read the message in Greek, followed by a link, which he clicked on. It proceeded to infect his iPhone with Predator, malicious spyware that whisked his data away to a mysterious Cyprus-registered, Athens-based firm called Intellexa.”
Androulakis received a similar text but did not open it. However, soon afterwards his σύνδεση became an επισύνδεση! This scandal is not going to go away. The NYT article can be read here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/opinion/greece-mitsotakis-predator-spyware.html?
Here are two in Greek. The first is from a blog: https://sarantakos.wordpress.com/2022/08/08/watergate/ and this one is from a site called Arti News. http://artinews.gr/η-επισύνδεση.html
Both authors express surprise at the ‘new’ word, the second writer wondering why επισύνδεση was necessary when παράνομη παρακολούθηση and υποκλοπή were available.