- Italian citizens were attacked by Paragon Spyware, says the government
- A malicious PDF file was used to implement malware through WhatsApp
- Since then, Paragon has canceled his contract with Italy
The Italian government has confirmed in a statement that seven of its citizens, and many others in Europe, were attacked by the Israeli Spyware Paragon Solutions company.
The zero click attack campaign used a malicious PDF file to infect user devices through the WhatsApp Messenger. The Italian ruling party, Fratelli d’Italia, has denied any participation in the campaign.
Fanpage.it, whose director was attacked as part of the campaign, confirmed that Paragon had terminated his contract with the Italian government for not complying with the “ethical framework” established in the agreement.
Paragon points to EU citizens
WhatsApp and his law firm Advant told the National Italian cybersecurity agency that seven Italian WhatsApp users were Paragon’s goal, but their identities could not reveal itself due to privacy problems.
Out of Italy, the citizens of Austria, Belgium, Chipre, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden were also attacked in the campaign based on field telephone codes.
The victims were mainly journalists and other members of civil society, WhatsApp confirmed last week after accusing Paragon of the Spyware campaign and issuing a cease and withdrawal letter.
Paragon also declared earlier this week that the United States and the “allies” were clients of the company, and said that the company has a “zero tolerance policy” for the “illegal orientation of journalists and other civil society figures “, with Paragon that indicates even more. that “would end our relationship with any client” that is in the violation of this rule.
The Italian government also declared that, as WhatsApp Ireland Limited is the European Meta operator, only the members of the European Union have been included in the list of countries, which can indicate that countries outside of Europe were also attacked in the campaign .
