Software from Israeli spyware firm Paragon Solutions has been caught targeting journalists, activists, and other citizens. Paragon markets its services to law enforcement agencies and governments worldwide to help catch criminals and terrorists.
The revelation comes in the form of a report from Citizen Labs. They shared their findings with Meta as WhatsApp is one of the messaging apps targeted by Graphite, Paragon’s flagship spyware. Citizen Labs also identified a “subset of suspected Paragon deployments, including in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, and Singapore.” The firm has also confirmed the US government as a customer.
The report identifies several high-profile Italian journalists and activists, including Francesco Cancellato, editor-in-chief of Fanpage, and Luca Casarini and Giuseppe Caccia, co-founders of Mediterranea Saving Humans. This group often criticises the Italian government’s immigration policies. WhatsApp ended up notifying over 90 individuals who were believed to be targeted by Paragon’s spyware. The Meta-owned messaging app also published an FAQ on its website addressing users’ concerns.
Graphite can monitor messaging apps without controlling the target’s phone. Paragon used a zero-click exploit to deploy spyware onto a target’s phone without user interaction. This results in a spyware infection chain that can infiltrate devices and monitor messages without giving the target any hint of suspicious activity.
Given the popularity of NSO Group’s spyware Pegasus, governments and agencies are quickly shifting to other tools to avoid being caught with their hands in the data cookie jar. This opportunity sits rather well with Paragon, whose Graphite spyware is offered as a more discrete alternative to Pegasus.
Paragon isn’t short on international contacts and networks, either. In 2019, Ehud Barak and Ehud Schneorson co-founded the company. Barak is Israel’s former prime minister, while Schneorson served as the commander of Unit 8200, a signals intelligence agency. The company differentiates itself from entities like NGO Group by claiming that it has safeguards to prevent spyware abuse.
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