Last year, notifications from communication platforms WhatsApp and Apple alerted several individuals in Italy, including journalists and activists, that they had been targeted with government spyware. WhatsApp specifically identified the Israeli — American surveillance technology provider Paragon Solutions as the company behind a hacking campaign that utilized its “Graphite” spyware, reportedly affecting approximately 90 people globally. These revelations ignited a significant scandal in Italy, prompting a number of victims to file criminal complaints and leading Italian prosecutors in Rome and Naples to launch a comprehensive investigation into the matter.
A year after the investigations commenced, Paragon Solutions is now reportedly failing to cooperate with Italian authorities. While the company had previously offered to assist in the probe, it has yet to respond to a formal request for information sent by Italian prosecutors via the Israeli government. Following the initial eruption of the spyware scandal, Paragon had publicly criticized the Italian government, asserting that its offer to investigate whether a journalist had been spied on with Graphite spyware was refused. This public disagreement escalated to the point where Paragon canceled its contracts with Italy's two primary intelligence agencies, AISE and AISI, citing the Italian government's rejection of its assistance offer as a contributing factor.
The reasons behind Paragon’s reported lack of response to the Italian judicial request remain unclear. One possibility considered is intervention by the Israeli government; for instance, a 2024 report by The Guardian noted that the Israeli government had previously seized documents from NSO Group’s offices to prevent the company from complying with demands in a lawsuit involving WhatsApp. However, Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack informed Wired Italy that while the Israeli government possesses the authority to compel local companies to cooperate with foreign judicial requests, such an action has "never happened.
Among the reported victims were journalists Francesco Cancellato and Ciro Pellegrino, both working for the online news website Fanpage, whose phones were confirmed by The Citizen Lab, a research organization, to have been targeted with Graphite. Additionally, activists associated with Mediterranea Saving Humans, an Italian nonprofit dedicated to rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, were also identified as targets. Despite these findings, the Italian government, under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has consistently denied that it hacked the two journalists.
Paragon Solutions has historically endeavored to project an image as a more ethical alternative to other controversial spyware makers, such as NSO Group or Intellexa. Its official website, which is no longer accessible, once stated the company provided clients with “ethically based tools, teams, and insights.” This current situation in Italy marks Paragon’s first significant public scandal. Concurrently, the company maintains an active contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), where its spyware is utilized by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for counter — terrorism efforts and to combat drug trafficking, indicating its continued involvement in global surveillance operations.
The reported uncooperativeness from Paragon presents substantial hurdles for Italian authorities seeking accountability and transparency in these spyware attacks. Such a public dispute between a government spyware provider and a former customer is extremely rare. This scenario underscores the broader complexities and difficulties in regulating the global surveillance industry, where issues of cross — border jurisdiction, transparency, and corporate accountability frequently arise. Efforts to gain further insight into the situation have been met with silence, as Paragon, the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Italian prosecutors’ offices involved in the case did not respond to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
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