Paragon is not cooperating with Italian authorities investigating espionage, the report says

Last year, WhatsApp and apple informed several people in Italy, including journalists and activists, that they had been exposed to government spying programs. In particular, WhatsApp pointed the finger at the Israeli-American technology developer Paragon Solutions as the company that provided the technology for the hacking campaign that targeted about 90 people worldwide with the “Graphite” spyware.

The announcements sparked outrage in Italy that is still ongoing. After many people were informed of the attack, they filed a complaint with Italian authorities, and prosecutors reopened the investigation.

Now, it appears that Paragon, despite previously promising to help Italian authorities investigate the scandal, is reportedly not cooperating.

According to Wired ItalyItalian prosecutors sent a request for information to Paragon, through the Israeli government, but a year after the investigation was opened, the company has not responded.

Following the outbreak of the espionage scandal in Italy, Paragon publicly announced the Italian governmentsaying it rejected the company’s offer to investigate whether a journalist was kidnapped and spied on by Graphite’s spyware. The company went so far as to terminate its contract with two Italian spy agencies, AISE and AISI, in part because the Italian government rejected the company’s offer to help.

It is unclear why Paragon did not respond to the prosecutor’s request. It is possible that the Israeli government intervened. In 2024, The Guardian said that the Israeli government seized documents from NSO’s office to prevent the company from cooperating with its demands in the case against WhatsApp.

Israeli human rights lawyer Itay Mack told Wired Italy that the Israeli government could force local companies to comply with foreign requests for information, “but this has not happened.”

The Supreme Court of Spain closed his investigation earlier this year to use NSO’s spying programs against Spanish politicians, saying that Israeli officials did not cooperate with its investigation.

Paragon, the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, and the prosecutor’s offices in Rome and Naples, which are investigating the matter together, did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

In the history of government spying programs, it is rare for a company to engage in a public fight with one of its former clients. Paragon’s move may have been motivated by its long-standing attempt to be seen as a fairer alternative than other spyware developers, such as NSO Group or Intellexa, which have been caught in countless traps around the world.

Instead, the official Paragon website, which no longer carries, he said the company provides clients with “behavioral tools, categories, and information.”

So far, this is Paragon’s first attack, but the company now has a permanent contract and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which for a year has been arresting and deporting thousands of immigrants across the country. ICE told lawmakers that his Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit is using Paragon’s spying software to fight terrorism and drug trafficking.

The Italian government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has always refused to jail two journalists, Francesco Cancellato and Ciro Pellegrino, who work for the website Fanpage and whose phones are connected to Paragon’s Graphite. The Citizen Lab, a research organization that has investigated spy abuse for more than a decade, confirmed that all journalists were kidnapped by Graphite.

Other victims in this country including freedom fighters who work for Mediterranea Saving Humans, an Italian non-profit organization whose mission is to save migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

Last June, the Italian parliamentary committee that oversees the country’s spy agencies investigated the scandal, and. he concluded that the targeting of the activists was justified. But he said he could find no evidence that Cancellato had been targeted, and that the committee had never investigated Pellegrino.

Then, in March, the same prosecutors requested information from Paragon he said in a news release that the forensic analysis of Canellato’s device confirmed that his phone was stolen, while it did not match the analysis of Pellegrino’s phone.

The prosecutor’s investigation is still ongoing.