Ice reactivates the contract with the manufacturer Spyware Paragon

Immigration and US Customs (Ice) A contract was signed Last year with the Israeli manufacturer Spyware Paragon worth $ 2 million.

Shortly thereafter, the Biden administration Put the contract under considerationIssuing a “work order” to determine if the contract complied an executive order At the commercial spyware, which limits US government services from the use of spyware that could violate human rights or target Americans abroad.

Nearly a year later, when the contract seemed to be exhausted and never becoming active, Ice raised the work order, according to public records.

“This contract concerns a fully designed privately owned solution, including license, material, warranty, maintenance and training. This modification is the rise of work command” Read an update Dated August 30th on the US Federal System of America’s Data, a Governmental Agreement database.

Independent journalist Jack Poulson He was the first to mention the news in his newsletter.

Paragon has for years cultivated its image of being a “moral” and responsible manufacturer of Spyware, as opposed to controversial Spyware suppliers, such as the hacking team, Intellexa and the NSO team. In this official websiteParagon claims to provide its customers “moral tools, groups and ideas”.

The spyware manufacturer faces a moral dilemma. Now that the contract with the Ice Department of ICE is active, it is up to Paragon to decide whether he wants to continue his relationship with Ice, an organization that has accelerated mass deportations and expanded surveillance powers since Donald Trump has taken over the White House.

Emily Horne, a Paragon spokesman, as well as executive President John Fleming, did not respond to a request for comments.

In an attempt to show her good faith in February this year, Fleming told TechCrunch that the company is selling only to the US government and other unspecified allied countries.

Paragon already had to face a thorny moral dilemma. In January, WhatsApp revealed that about 90 of its users, including journalists and human rights workers, had targeted with the Spyware of Paragon, named Graphite. In the following days and weeks, Italian journalist Francesco Cancellato and several local pre-immigration activists proceeded by saying that they were among the victims.

Responding to this scandal, Paragon cut off the links with the Italian government, which in the meantime began a survey to determine what happened. Subsequently, in June, the Citizen Lab digital rights research team confirmed that two other journalists, one anonymous European and a Cancellato colleague, had been tired of Paragon’s Spyware.

An Italian Parliament Committee concluded that the espionage of activists in favor of immigration was legal, but also claimed that there were no evidence that Italy’s information services, former Paragon customers, had targeted Cancellato.

John Scott-Rilton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, who has explored spyware abuse for more than a decade, told TechCrunch that “these tools were designed for dictatorships, not democracies based on freedom and protection of individual rights”.

The researcher said that even Spyware is “corrupt”, so “there is a growing bunch of spyware scandals in democracies, including Paragon’s graphite.” Worse, Paragon still protects spyware abusers.