WhatsApp says its users targeted by Israeli spyware company Paragon

An authoritative astatine the Meta-owned level says it detected attempts by Paragon to hack its users’ accounts.

An authoritative astatine Meta’s fashionable WhatsApp chat work has said Israeli spyware institution Paragon Solutions targeted 90 of its users, including journalists and members of civilian society.

The authoritative told the Reuters quality bureau connected Friday that WhatsApp had sent Paragon a cease-and-desist missive pursuing the hack.

The authoritative declined to accidental who, specifically, was targeted but confirmed that WhatsApp is referring targets to the Canadian net watchdog radical Citizen Lab.

He declined to accidental however WhatsApp ascertained that Paragon was liable for the breach. He said instrumentality enforcement and manufacture partners had been informed, but would not spell into detail.

In a statement, WhatsApp said the institution “will proceed to support people’s quality to pass privately”.

WhatsApp besides told the United Kingdom’s Guardian paper that it had “high confidence” the users successful question had been targeted and “possibly compromised”.

Paragon declined to comment.

Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton told Reuters that the find of Paragon spyware targeting WhatsApp users “is a reminder that mercenary spyware continues to proliferate and arsenic it does, truthful we proceed to spot acquainted patterns of problematic use”.

Paragon sells high-end surveillance bundle to authorities clients. They typically advertise their services arsenic captious to warring transgression and protecting nationalist security.

Similar spy tools – which let distant entree to mobile devices without the victim’s cognition – person been discovered connected the phones of journalists, activists, and astatine slightest 50 US officials, raising concerns astir the unchecked proliferation of spyware technology.

Several reports successful caller years person recovered that Israeli-made Pegasus spyware has been utilized by governments across the world to spy connected activists, journalists, and adjacent heads of state.

Paragon, which was co-founded by erstwhile Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, was reportedly sold to a US backstage equity firm, AE Industrial Partners, for $900m successful 2024.

The company’s website advertises “ethically based tools, teams, and insights to disrupt intractable threats”.

Natalia Krapiva, elder tech-legal counsel astatine the advocacy radical Access Now, said Paragon had the estimation of being a much liable spyware company, “but WhatsApp’s caller revelations suggest otherwise”.

“This is not conscionable a question of immoderate atrocious apples — these types of abuses [are] a diagnostic of the commercialized spyware industry,” she told Reuters.

Reuters said that AE did not instantly instrumentality a connection seeking comment.

Source

:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies