Citizen Lab Reveals New Report on Paragon Solutions' Spyware

Citizen Lab has published a new report on the spyware of Paragon Solutions, an Israeli company founded in 2019 that sells spyware called Graphite. The report reveals that Paragon claims to have safeguards to prevent abuse, unlike other providers such as NSO Group. An analysis of Paragon's infrastructure identified suspicious deployments in several countries, including Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, and Singapore. An investigation also shed light on potential links between Paragon and the Ontario Provincial Police in Canada. Citizen Lab shared its findings with Meta, which allowed WhatsApp to detect and neutralize an active zero-click exploitation by Paragon, notifying more than 90 targeted individuals, including members of civil society in Italy. A forensic analysis of Android phones belonging to Paragon's targets in Italy revealed clear indications of spyware installation in WhatsApp and other applications. Additionally, an attempt to infect an iPhone with new spyware was detected in June 2024, confirmed and patched by Apple in iOS 18.