"WhatsApp on Friday accused the commercial surveillance company Paragon of targeting about 90 of its users with spyware.
The Meta-owned messaging platform said it believes the targets include journalists and members of civil society. The company said it had disrupted the attack vector, which involved a malicious PDF file that was sent to intended victims.
WhatsApp determined Paragon, which was founded by former Israeli intelligence officers, was responsible for the attempted intrusions, and the company said it had contacted those targeted to make them aware of the incident. It also said it has sent Paragon a cease-and-desist letter.
“This is the latest example of why spyware companies must be held accountable for their unlawful actions,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement.
The company has aggressively pursued spyware companies targeting its users, and in December a California federal judge ruled that NSO Group, the manufacturer of the spyware Pegasus, was liable for having infected mobile devices of about 1,400 WhatsApp users in 2019."
https://therecord.media/whatsapp-paragon-spyware-targeting-users
#CyberSecurity #Spyware #Paragon #Surveillance #WhatsApp #Israel
"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.
It is not clear how long Cancellato may have been compromised. But the editor published a high-profile investigative story last year that exposed how members of Meloni’s far-right party’s youth wing had engaged in fascist chants, Nazi salutes and antisemitic rants.
Fanpage’s undercover reporters – although not Cancellato personally – had infiltrated groups and chat forums used by members of the National Youth, a wing of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. The outlet published clips of National Youth members chanting “Duce” – a reference to Benito Mussolini – and “sieg Heil”, and boasting about their familial connections to historical figures linked to neo-fascist terrorism. The stories were published in May."