"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."
#CyberSecurity #Spyware #WhatsApp #Paragon #Italy
Fascists love to surveil and harass… 😕
"The Italian founder of the NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, who has been a vocal critic of Italy’s alleged complicity in abuses suffered by migrants in Libya, has revealed WhatsApp informed him his mobile phone was targeted by military-grade spyware made by the Israel-based company Paragon Solutions.
Luca Casarini, an activist whose organisation is estimated to have saved 2,000 people crossing the Mediterranean to Italy, is the most high profile person to come forward since WhatsApp announced last week that 90 journalists and other members of civil society had probably had their phones compromised by a government client using Paragon’s spyware.
The work of the three alleged targets to have come forward so far – Casarini, the journalist Francesco Cancellato, and the Sweden-based Libyan activist Husam El Gomati – have one thing in common: each has been critical of the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. The Italian government has not responded to a request for comment on whether it is a client of Paragon."
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/05/activists-critical-of-italian-pm-may-have-had-their-phones-targeted-by-paragon-spyware-says-whatsapp
@[email protected] I’m Italian American and I just confronted a fellow expatriate living in Italy who had the audacity to give me her glib rhetoric and hypocrisy regarding America and Italy. I questioned her on not just the scandals here in the U.S., but including Meloni who stood with Trump unlike other Euro leaders. She’s disingenuous and posturing herself on Facebook and TikTok. I’m deleting all my Meta apps, and never used TikTok. She’s not on Mastodon as far as I know.