On Friday, the company claimed nearly 100 other civil society journalists and members who use WhatsApp.
Journalists and other civil society members were alerted to a possible breach of their devices, as Whatsapp the Guardian told that “high confidence” that 90 users in the question have been targeted and “may be at risk.”
It is not clear who was behind the attack. Like other spyware, Hacking Paragon is used by government agents and WhatsApp said he was unable to identify customers who requested alleged attacks.
Experts said the targeting was a “zero click” attack, which means that the goals had no clicking on any harmful bonds.
WhatsApp refused to reveal the location of journalists and civil society members, including whether they were headquartered in the United States.
Paraguce has an American office in Shantley, Virginia. The company faced the last scrutiny after WIRED reported in October that it had concluded a $ 2 million contract with the Investigation Department of Internal Security for Migration and Customs in the United States.
According to what was reported, the department was issued to stop the contract to verify whether it had complied with the executive order of the Biden administration that restricts the use of spyware by the federal government. The Trump administration canceled dozens of executive orders of the Biden Administration in the first two weeks in his post, but ordered 2023, which prohibited the use of spyware that poses a threat to national security.
WhatsApp said he sent Paragon a speech “stop and stop” and that he was exploring his legal options. WhatsApp said that the alleged attacks were broken in December and that it was not clear the time when the goals may be at a threat.
The company is currently notifying the alleged piracy victims, who will be contacted by WhatsApp.
“WhatsApp has disrupted a spyware campaign by Paragon that targeted a number of users, including journalists and civil society members. We have contacted directly with the people we believe they were affected. This is the latest example of the reason for the responsibility of Speware companies for their illegal actions. A company spokesman said : “WhatsApp will continue to protect people’s ability to communicate in particular.”
Paragon Solutions refused to comment.
A person close to the company told the Guardian that Paraguce has 35 government agents, that they all could be considered democrats, and that Paraguce did not deal with countries, including some democracies, who were previously accused of misusing spyware. The person said that this includes Greece, Poland, Hungary, Mexico and India.
Paragon’s Spyware is known as graphite and has comparative capabilities with PEGASUS Spy’s NSO Group software. Once the phone has a graphite, the spyware operator can completely access to the phone, including the ability to read messages that are sent through encrypted applications such as WhatsApp and Signal.
The company, which was founded by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, was the subject of media reports in Israel recently, after it was reported that the group had been sold to an American private stock company, AE Industrial Partners, for $ 900 million.
Reports indicate that the deal has not yet received full organizational approval in Israel. Electronic weapons such as graphite and pigasus are organized by the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The Guardian has arrived at the industrial AE partners, which is based in Boca Raton, Florida. Paragon is not included in the company’s investments on its website.
“For some time, Paragon had the reputation of” Best “spyware for not involved in clear violations, but the recent disclosure of WhatsApp indicates otherwise. This is not just the issue of some bad apples – these types of violations are an advantage for the commercial spyware industry.” Natalia Crabiva, chief legal adviser to technology at Access Now, said.
WhatsApp said he believed that the so -called vector, or the means by which the infection was delivered to users, was through a harmful PDF file that was sent to the individuals who were added to the group chats. WhatsApp said he could say with confidence that Paragua is associated with this targeting.
John Scott Rilton, the first researcher at the Citizen Laboratory at the University of Toronto, who tracks and defines digital threats against civil society, said Citizen Lab provided WhatsApp with some information that helped the company understand the vector that was used against the company’s users.
The group is expected to publish a future report that provides more details about the alleged targeting.
WhatsApp announced the news a few weeks after the ruling of the judge in California in favor of the company in a historical case against NSO Group, the prominent spyware maker that was placed in 2021 by the Biden administration in a commercial list. At that time, the Biden Administration said it has placed NSO on the list of alleged entities because the company participated in activities “contradicts national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”
NSO pressed members of Congress to be removed from the list.
WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against NSO in 2019 after saying that 1,400 users have spy tools for the company. In December, a judge, Welce Hamilton, spent that NSO was responsible for the attacks, and that NSO had violated the laws of American piracy and the United States and the conditions of WhatsApp.
Have you been affected? If so, please call
Stephanie.kirchgaessner@theguardian.com