Nearly 100 Journalists and other members of Civil Society Using WhatsApp, The Popular Messaging App Owned By Meta, WERE TARGETED BY Spyware Owned By Paragon Solutions, An Israeli Maker of Hacking Software y alleged today.
The Journalists and Other Civil Society Members Were alerted of a Possible Breach of Their Devices, with whatsapp telling the guardian it has “HIGH CONFIDENCE” Promised ”.
Experts said the targeting was a “zero-click” attack, which means the targets would not have had to have click on any Malicious Links to be infected.
Whatsapp declined to disclose where the journey and members of Civil Society were based, including, then who they were based in the us.
Paragon has a US office in Chantilly, Virginia. The company has decided recent scrutiny after wired magazine in October reported that it has entred into a $ 2M contract with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ‘
The division is reportedly issued a stop-winder for the contrast to verify where it complied with a biden administration Executive Order that Restricted the Use of Spyware by the federanel by the federar
Whatsapp said it had sent paragon a “cease and desist” Letter and that it was explining its legal options. Whatsapp said the alleged attacks had been disrupted in December and that it was not clear how long the targets may have been under threat.
“Whatsapp has disrupted a spyware campaign by paragon that targeted a number of users including Journalists and Members of Civil Society. We’ve reacted out directly to people who we believe were affected. This is the latest example of whose spyware companies must be held accountable for their unlawful actions. Whatsapp will continue to protect people’s ability to communicate private, “a company spokesperson said.
Reached Out to Paragon Solutions for a comment but the company did not immediatily respond.
Paragon’s spyware is knowledge as graphite and has capabilites that are comparable to NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware. Once a phone is infected with graphite, the operator of the spyware has total access over the phone, include being done alle to read messages that are synt via encrypted applications like WhatsApp and Signal.
Whatsapp said it believed the so-called sector, or means by which the infection was delivered to users, was thought a malicious pdf file that was sent to individuals who added to GROP CHATS. Whatsapp said it could say with “confidence” that paragon was linked to this targeting.
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