Italian investigative journalist targeted on WhatsApp by Israeli spyware [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Fri 31 Jan 2025 18.46 EST
Last modified on Fri 31 Jan 2025 20.36 EST
An Italian investigative journalist who is known for exposing young fascists within prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party was targeted with spyware made by Israel-based Paragon Solutions, according to a WhatsApp notification received by the journalist.
Francesco Cancellato, the editor-in-chief of the Italian investigative news outlet Fanpage, was the first person to come forward publicly after WhatsApp announced on Friday that 90 journalists and other members of civil society had been targeted by the spyware. The journalist, like dozens of others whose identities are not yet known, said he received a notification from the messaging app on Friday afternoon.
WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, has not identified the targets or their precise locations, but said they were based in more than two dozen countries, including in Europe. WhatsApp said it had discovered that Paragon was targeting its users in December and shut down the vector used to “possibly compromise” the individuals. Like other spyware makers, Paragon sells use of its spyware, known as Graphite, to government agencies, who are supposed to use it to fight and prevent crime.
Paragon’s spyware was allegedly delivered to targets who were placed on group chats without their permission, and sent malware through PDFs in the group chat. Paragon makes no-click spyware, which means users do not have to click on any link or attachment to be infected; it is simply delivered to the phone.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/31/italian-journalist-whatsapp-israeli-spyware
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