WhatsApp Alleges Israeli Spyware Company Targeted Journalists, Members of Civil Society
WhatsApp has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Paragon Solutions in response to a hacking incident that affected individuals in journalism and civil society. Read Full Article at RT.com.
TroibNews 
WhatsApp has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Paragon Solutions following a hack attack that compromised nearly 100 journalists and civil society members, a company official informed Reuters on Friday. These individuals are believed to have been targeted through a zero-click attack, potentially initiated by a harmful PDF circulated in group chats.
The assailants remain unidentified, but Paragon’s software is generally utilized by government clients. In response to the detected and thwarted hacking attempt, WhatsApp has taken legal action against Paragon. The situation has also been referred to law enforcement and Citizen Lab, a Canadian internet monitoring organization.
Paragon has chosen not to comment on the allegations, as reported by Reuters.
According to Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton, the incident “is a reminder that mercenary spyware continues to proliferate and as it does, so we continue to see familiar patterns of problematic use.”
Paragon’s official site promotes "ethically based tools, teams, and insights to disrupt intractable threats," claiming that it solely sells to governments in stable democratic nations. Among its offerings is Graphite, spyware that provides full access to targeted phones.
Despite Paragon’s assertions regarding ethics, WhatsApp’s findings contradict those claims. Natalia Krapiva, a senior tech-legal counsel at Access Now, highlighted the broader issue, stating, “This is not just a question of some bad apples – these types of abuses are a feature of the commercial spyware industry.”
This incident is part of a wider pattern of legal issues facing Israeli spyware companies. In December 2024, a US judge ruled that NSO Group, the creator of Pegasus spyware, was responsible for hacking the phones of 1,400 individuals via WhatsApp in May 2019, in violation of US state and federal hacking laws, as well as WhatsApp’s terms of service. A forthcoming trial in March will determine the compensation owed by NSO Group to WhatsApp.
Legal documents from ongoing litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have disclosed that NSO Group, not its governmental clients, is responsible for installing and extracting information using its spyware, challenging NSO’s previous assertion that only clients operate the system without direct involvement from NSO.
Sophie Wagner for TROIB News
The assailants remain unidentified, but Paragon’s software is generally utilized by government clients. In response to the detected and thwarted hacking attempt, WhatsApp has taken legal action against Paragon. The situation has also been referred to law enforcement and Citizen Lab, a Canadian internet monitoring organization.
Paragon has chosen not to comment on the allegations, as reported by Reuters.
According to Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton, the incident “is a reminder that mercenary spyware continues to proliferate and as it does, so we continue to see familiar patterns of problematic use.”
Paragon’s official site promotes "ethically based tools, teams, and insights to disrupt intractable threats," claiming that it solely sells to governments in stable democratic nations. Among its offerings is Graphite, spyware that provides full access to targeted phones.
Despite Paragon’s assertions regarding ethics, WhatsApp’s findings contradict those claims. Natalia Krapiva, a senior tech-legal counsel at Access Now, highlighted the broader issue, stating, “This is not just a question of some bad apples – these types of abuses are a feature of the commercial spyware industry.”
This incident is part of a wider pattern of legal issues facing Israeli spyware companies. In December 2024, a US judge ruled that NSO Group, the creator of Pegasus spyware, was responsible for hacking the phones of 1,400 individuals via WhatsApp in May 2019, in violation of US state and federal hacking laws, as well as WhatsApp’s terms of service. A forthcoming trial in March will determine the compensation owed by NSO Group to WhatsApp.
Legal documents from ongoing litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have disclosed that NSO Group, not its governmental clients, is responsible for installing and extracting information using its spyware, challenging NSO’s previous assertion that only clients operate the system without direct involvement from NSO.
Sophie Wagner for TROIB News
