WhatsApp has accused Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions of targeting nearly 100 journalists and civil society members with its Graphite software.
WhatsApp has accused Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions of targeting nearly 100 journalists and civil society members with hacking software, according to a report from The Guardian.
The messaging app, owned by Meta, has notified the affected individuals and stated it had “high confidence” that their devices were compromised through spyware developed by Paragon.
WhatsApp has reportedly sent the company a cease-and-desist letter and is considering legal action.
It remains unclear which government clients ordered the attack, as Paragon’s spyware is marketed for state use. Security experts have described the breach as a “zero-click” attack, meaning victims did not need to interact with a malicious link to be infected. WhatsApp believes the attack vector was a malicious PDF file sent to group chats.
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Paragon’s spyware, known as Graphite, has similar capabilities to the notorious Pegasus software, allowing full access to an infected device, including encrypted messages.
“The company, which was founded by the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, has been the subject of media reports in Israel recently, after it was reported that the group was sold to a US private equity firm, AE Industrial Partners, for $900m”, according to the Guardian.
The Guardian also reported that Paragon has maintained it only sells to democratic governments and does not do business with countries previously accused of spyware abuse, including Greece, Poland, Hungary, Mexico, and India. The company declined to comment on the allegations.
A WhatsApp spokesperson stated: “WhatsApp has disrupted a spyware campaign by Paragon that targeted a number of users including journalists and members of civil society.”
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“We’ve reached out directly to people who we believe were affected. This is the latest example of why spyware companies must be held accountable for their unlawful actions. WhatsApp will continue to protect people’s ability to communicate privately,” the spokesperson said.
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, was quoted by the Guardian as confirming that the group assisted WhatsApp in identifying the attack method and is expected to release a report with further details.
This revelation comes shortly after WhatsApp won a legal battle against NSO Group, another Israeli spyware firm.
A California judge ruled that NSO was liable for hacking 1,400 WhatsApp users in 2019, violating US hacking laws and the platform’s terms of service.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
