Researchers Confirm Two Journalists Were Hacked With Paragon Spyware (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0178028999
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/06/12/2235231/researchers-confirm-two-journalists-were-hacked-with-paragon-spyware
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/12/researchers-confirm-two-journalists-were-hacked-with-paragon-spyware/
> Two European journalists were [1]hacked using government spyware made by Israeli surveillance tech provider Paragon , new research has confirmed. On Thursday, digital rights group The Citizen Lab [2]published a new report detailing the results of a new forensic investigation into the iPhones of Italian journalist Ciro Pellegrino and an unnamed "prominent" European journalist. The researchers said both journalists were hacked by the same Paragon customer, based on evidence found on the two journalists' devices.
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> Until now, there was no evidence that Pellegrino, who works for online news website [3]Fanpage , had been either targeted or hacked with Paragon spyware. When he was alerted by Apple at the end of April, the notification referred to a mercenary spyware attack, but did not specifically mention Paragon, nor whether his phone had been infected with the spyware. The confirmation of the first-ever known Paragon infections further deepens an ongoing spyware scandal that, for now, appears to be mostly focused on the use of spyware by the Italian government, but could expand to include other countries in Europe.
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> These new revelations come months after WhatsApp [4]first notified around 90 of its users in over two dozen countries in Europe and beyond, including journalists, that they had been targeted with Paragon spyware, known as Graphite. Among those targeted were several Italians, including Pellegrino's colleague and Fanpage director Francesco Cancellato, as well as nonprofit workers who help rescue migrants at sea. Last week, Italy's parliamentary committee known as COPASIR, which oversees the country's intelligence agencies' activities, [5]published a report (PDF) that said it found no evidence that Cancellato was spied on. The report, which confirmed that Italy's internal and external intelligence agencies AISI and AISE were Paragon customers, made no mention of Pellegrino. The Citizen Lab's new report puts into question COPASIR's conclusions.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/12/researchers-confirm-two-journalists-were-hacked-with-paragon-spyware/
[2] https://citizenlab.ca/2025/06/first-forensic-confirmation-of-paragons-ios-mercenary-spyware-finds-journalists-targeted/
[3] https://www.fanpage.it/
[4] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/01/31/1441220/whatsapp-says-journalists-and-civil-society-members-were-targets-of-israeli-spyware
[5] https://documenti.camera.it/_dati/leg19/lavori/documentiparlamentari/IndiceETesti/034/004/INTERO.pdf
Israel: And? (Score:1, Insightful)
The Israeli government: You're worried about spyware? Normally, we just kill journalists and their families.
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/gl... [theguardian.com]
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/17/in-gaza-a-press-vest-makes-you-a-target-the-journalists-who-have-paid-a-price-for-reporting-on-the-war
There is no future for this planet unless (Score:3, Funny)
Israel's entire military capacity is destroyed.
End Game? (Score:3)
One has to wonder what the Israeli government's end game is. Not just in Gaza, or the West Bank, but in its military threats to Syria and now its attack on Iran.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
Israel is a rogue state, akin to North Korea and Russia. State sponsored terrorism, genocide, hacking for profit, harbouring sex offenders accused of having hundreds of child victims, apartheid, violent crack-downs on protesters... There isn't a box they don't tick.
Inexplicable how iPhones are so easily bugged :o (Score:3)
It's inexplicable how iPhones are so easily bugged. It's almost as if the phones were designed to be back-doored. Besides that, there was the discovery of unknown hardware registers in Apple’s A12 to A16 Bionic System on a Chip (SoC). That gave hackers remote silent control of the phone hardware. Seems to be a deliberate backdoor that the miscrients discovered. Who knew /s
[1]The Mystery of CVE-2023-38606 [grc.com]
[1] https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-955-notes.pdf
Re: (Score:2)
Or companies like Paragon pay enough to poach the right people.
Re: (Score:2)
That was a good read. Reminds me off the time when it was found that NSA had code inserted into Jupiter Networks devices. The iPhone exploit seems to be similar and was likely added it at the request of governments
Confusing name (Score:3)
Don't confuse C.Pellegrino with S.Pellegrino
They taste completely different.