The spy software scandal developed by Israeli Paragon Solutions is not endless. The Italian government said in a press release that the spyware, which was produced by Paragon Solutions by WhatsApp, targeted people in various countries of Europe. In a official statement, seven people in Italy were targeted with this spy software.

Paragon scandal is growing

The government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has rejected in a definite language that it was behind the targeting of Luca Casarini, the activist of Mediterranea Saving Humans, a non -governmental organization Mediterranea Saving Humans, who helps Italian journalist Francesco Cancellato and immigrants.

However, the Guardian, based on a source close to the issue, the Paragon Solutions ended his relationship with Italy. It was noteworthy that the targeted people in Italy were names criticizing Giorgia Meloni’s right -wing government.

The Italian National Cyber ​​Security Agency (ACN) contacted WhatsApp and the company’s law firm Advant and investigated the size of the attack. However, WhatsApp did not disclose the identities of the targeted people on the grounds of privacy.

According to the Italian government, WhatsApp detected spyware attack is not limited to Italy. Austria, Belgium, Czech, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden in many European countries such as users reportedly targeted.

Paragon Solutions told TechCrunch that he sold spy software technology only to the US government and its “non -specified“ allies .. The company has announced that there are strict contract conditions that prohibit its customers from having an illegal targeting of journalists and civil society figures, and that such violations would result in the cancellation of the contract. The company did not clarify whether the cancellation of any contract was realized. Paragon did not give information about which countries really provided service and whether the countries claimed by the Italian government were customers.

Paragon’s Graphite spyware is similar to Israeli NSO Group’s famous Pegasus software. The software can infect it without the user’s knowledge and without clicking on a malicious connection or e-mail user. WhatsApp said that targeted people were added to the groups and their devices were seized with malicious PDF files.

WhatsApp said that all hacking initiatives were discovered in December with the help of Citizen Lab, which partially followed digital threats to civil society. However, how long the target persons were monitored and spyware software has not yet become clear which governments used.