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On Wednesday , Mediterranea Saving Humans , an Italian nonprofit with the mission of deliver immigrant who seek to intersect the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Europe , said one of its founder was among the targets of a recent spyware campaign carry out against WhatsApp substance abuser .
In a public press release , Mediterranea said WhatsApp notified its founding father , Luca Casarini , last week that he had been direct with spyware made by Paragon Solutions , an Israeli surveillance tech startup . On Friday , WhatsApp enunciate it had disrupt an espionage campaignusing Paragon spyware that targeted around 90 multitude .
At the meter , the Meta - owned society said that among the targets there were diary keeper and fellow member of polite society , without advert anyone . Since then some of the object , including Casarini , have started to come forrard .
The first person was Francesco Cancellato , the director ofFanpage.it , an Italian intelligence website that has publish investigation into engineer criminal offense and corruption . Last year the publication reporteda multi - part documentarythat showed some members of the youth wing of the company currently running the Italian government sing about fascistic dictator Benito Mussolini , chanting Nazi shibboleth , and ca-ca antiblack remark .
After Cancellato , Sweden - based militant Husam El Gomatialso came forward . El Gomati has been critical of how Libya and Italy have collaborated to stop immigrants from cross the Mediterranean . And now , Casarini is the latest person to have been notified by WhatsApp .
All three object have one affair in coarse , their work , or that of their organizations , has been vital of the current Italian government , led by far - right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni .
“ The bodily process of rescue at sea and aid to people incarcerate in Libyan refugee camp or deported to the desert are the centering of aid of the Italian secret service , in particular the AISE , which go in Libya and Tunisia , ” Mediterranea aver in its pressing release . “ Some questions arise : did the Italian government authorize such an surgical procedure ? Do the Italian occult service habituate Paragon software ? ”
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So far , the Italian government has not answered that question , nor has the government commented on Cancellato nor Casarini ’s cases .
The Italian government , through its official press electronic mail address , as well as that of Fabrizio Alfano , the head of Meloni ’s press office , have not responded to TechCrunch ’s requests for commentary and query , which included whether Italy has purchase Paragon ’s spyware .
Ynetnews , an Israeli news website , reportedon Monday that Italy is a Paragon customer .
John Fleming , the executive chairman of Paragon ’s U.S. subsidiary , did not answer to a request for commentary on Casarini ’s event , nor react to a request for comment on Wednesday .
On Tuesday , Fleming severalise TechCrunchthat Paragon , which was acquired by U.S. individual equity fund AE Industrial in December , sells its product “ to a select group of spheric democracy — mainly , the United States and its ally . ”
“ [ Paragon ] requires that all users agree to terms and conditions that explicitly proscribe the illicit targeting of journalists and other polite society figures . We have a zero - permissiveness policy against such targeting and will give the sack our relationship with any customer that violates our term of divine service , ” Sir Alexander Fleming said in the statement .
Ian Fleming has not yet answered questions about Paragon , including whether the Italian regime is a client , and whether Paragon is inquire WhatsApp ’s allegations and those of the target area that have come forward so far .
Mediterranea say that The Citizen Lab , a digital rights organization at the University of Toronto that has look into spyware for more than a decennary , is conducting an investigation on Casarini ’s speech sound .
John Scott - Railton , a senior research worker at Citizen Lab , confirmed to TechCrunch that they are actively investigating Paragon .
Scott - Railton warned that these cases are another reminder that the mercantile spyware industriousness , with companies such as NSO Group and Paragon , has been fueling abuses for long time , even in democratic countries .
“ If you ’re selling secret surveillance to democracies , you still have to be incredibly skeptical of your client and usurp the possibility that vilification is lie in wait around every corner . If you do n’t , you ’re choosing willful ignorance . To me , this points to something primal about the mercenary spyware role model , which is : If you sell surveillance dick it ’s just a doubt of when the technology will be abused , not whether it will be , ” said Scott - Railton .
