Paragon Solutions, whose military-grade hacking software was allegedly used to target 90 people, including journalists and members of civil society, in two dozen countries, has terminated its client relationship with Italy, according a person familiar with the matter.
The decision to terminate the contract comes less than one week after WhatsApp announced that Paragon’s spyware had been used to target dozens of people. Like other spyware vendors, Paragon sells its cyberweapon to government clients who are supposed to use it to prevent crime. It remains unclear who the specific government clients were behind the alleged attacks.
The decision to end the Italy contract followed revelations that an Italian investigative journalist and two activists who were critical of Italy’s dealings with Libya were among the people who had had been targeted with the spyware. The work of all three individuals has been critical of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing government.
Responding to the allegations of involvement late on Wednesday, Meloni’s office denied that domestic intelligence services or the government were behind the alleged breaches.
The person familiar with the matter, who spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity, said Paragon had “out of an abundance of caution” initially suspended the Italy contract when the first allegation of potential abuse of the spyware emerged last Friday. The decision to fully terminate the contract, the person said, was made on Wednesday after Paragon determined that Italy had broken the terms of service and ethical framework it had agreed under its Paragon contract.
The Guardian has contacted an Italian government spokesperson for comment.
Meloni is expected to face more questions about the alleged breaches in parliament. The Italian government also revealed on Wednesday that it had been told by WhatsApp that the number of affected Italians “appeared to be seven”. It is unclear who the other alleged victims are.
Asked for comment, a Paragon representative declined to confirm or deny the development, and said it was the company’s policy to not discuss potential client matters.
Francesco Cancellato, the editor-in-chief of Fanpage, a highly regarded investigative news outlet, was the first to publicly state last Friday that he was one of the 90 people who had been notified by WhatsApp that his mobile phone had been targeted, and likely compromised, by the hacking software.
Like Pegasus, the spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group, Paragon’s Graphite spyware can infect a mobile phone without a user’s knowledge and without a user clicking on a malicious link or email. WhatsApp said the 90 people who were likely compromised had been added to WhatsApp group chats and been sent malicious PDFs, which then probably infected the phones.
WhatsApp said all of the hacking attempts had been discovered in December, in part through the help of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, which tracks digital threats against civil society. It is not clear for how long the individuals were possibly surveilled or the government clients involved in each case.
While it is not entirely clear why Cancellato may have been targeted, his publication last year published a high-profile investigation that exposed young fascists within Meloni’s party. The two other people who were targeted, Husam El Gomati, a Libyan activist living in Sweden, and Luca Casarini, the founder of NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, have both been vocal critics of Italy’s alleged complicity in abuses suffered by migrants in Libya.
While Paragon’s move is likely to assuage some concerns, there are still outstanding questions about dozens of other cases that WhatsApp discovered. Italy said earlier on Wednesday that it had been told by WhatsApp that those targets live in countries across Europe – and possibly other countries – including Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
Paragon was reportedly recently acquired by a US firm called AE Industrial Partners, which on its website is described as a private investment firm with $5.6bn of assets under management, focused on markets including national security. The company has not responded to requests for comment.
Paragon agreed a $2m contract last year with ICE, the US immigration and customs enforcement agency. The contract, agreed under the Biden administration, was reportedly suspended while the administration sought to determine whether it complied with an executive order that restricted the use of spyware by the federal government. The current status of the contract is not known. Neither ICE nor Paragon has responded to the Guardian’s questions about the contract.
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