The Italian government denied Wednesday that it had spied on journalists and migrant activists using spyware but said it would cooperate with an investigation into “vulnerabilities” after at least seven Italian cellphones were apparently hacked with military-grade surveillance technology.
Speaking to parliament’s lower chamber Wednesday, Cabinet Minister Luca Ciriani confirmed that the Italian government for many years has had a contract with Paragon Solutions to provide intelligence-gathering capabilities to fight terrorism and other threats to national security.
After The Guardian newspaper broke the story, the Italian government confirmed on Feb. 5 that at least seven Italian cellphones were involved and that it had activated the National Cybersecurity Agency, which reports to the premier’s office, to investigate.
In a statement provided by Meta’s Italy press office, WhatsApp said it had disrupted what it called “a spyware campaign by Paragon that targeted several users, including journalists and members of civil society.”.
Meta’s WhatsApp messaging service informed dozens of people across the European Union on Jan. 31 that they had been targeted in a spyware attack using technology from Israeli cyber firm Paragon Solutions.
