An Italian parliamentary committee confirmed that the Italian government used the Spyware made by the Israeli company Paragon to chart several activists working to save immigrants at sea. The committee, however, said that her investigation concluded that a prominent Italian journalist was not among the victims, leaving key questions about Spyware attacks unanswered.
The Parliamentary Committee on the Security of the Republic, known as Copasir, posted a report On Thursday, which resulted in a monthly research on the use of Paragon’s spyware, known as graphite, throughout Italy. Israeli newspaper Haaretz First wrote for the report.
In January, Whatsapp began sending alerts to about 90 of its users, warning them that they might have been targeted with Paragon’s Spyware. Several people in Italy came after the notifications were taken, causing a scandal in Italy, which has a long hospitality history Spyware software companiesas well as his government own Spyware software uses and abuse.
Since then, Copasir has explored allegations with the aim of clarifying exactly what happened.
Copasir specifically explored the targeting of Luca Casarini and Giuseppe Caccia, who both work for Mediterranean saving peopleAn Italian non -profit organization by sending the rescue of immigrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. In both of their cases, the Commission concluded that the Italian intelligence services were legally targeted as part of research related to the alleged facilitating illegal immigration in the country.
But the Copasir Commission concluded that there were no evidence that Francesco Cancellato, a journalist who also received a Whatsapp notice that warned him that it was the target of Paragon’s Spyware, had targeted Italy’s intelligence services.
The Commission wrote that its representatives were able to investigate the SPYWARE database of the Intelligence Services and the Cancellato phone check records and found no relevant file. The Commission also stated that it did not find evidence of legal demands for escellato’s spy from the country’s Supreme Office, nor from the Security Information Department or BurstA leading Italian government department that oversees the activities of the country’s two intelligence services, AISE and AISI.
The report noted that Paragon has foreign government clients who could possibly target the Italians, leaving the door open so that Cancellato’s phone can be explained. Copasir did not provide any evidence to support this theory.
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Cancellato is the manager of Fanpage.itan Italian news website that is Known for various surveysincluding one The youth-wing of the far -right ruling party in Italy, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. This study revealed that, privately, members made racist observations and chanting fascist songs and slogans.
The report made no mention of Ciro Pellegrino, a colleague of Cancellato, who received a notice from Apple in late April, saying he had targeted a government spyware. It is not clear whether Pellegrino had targeted with Paragon’s spyware and Apple’s notice did not say.
The Italian government, as well as Copasir, did not respond to a request for comments, especially asking Cancellato and Pellegrino.
Cancellato replied to the report In an article published on Fridayin which he questioned Copasir’s conclusions about his case and asked for more and better explanations.
“The case closed? Not at all,” Cancellato wrote.
For John Scott-Rilton, a senior researcher at The Citizen Lab, a human rights organization investigating Spyware abuses (including recent cases of abuse in Italy), specifying who aims at Cancellato is the top question left by the report.
“This report creates a problem for Paragon Solutions because the report leaves the most politically sensitive case unanswered: who targeted this journalist?” Because the case of Francesco Cancellato remains completely inexplicable, all eyes are back to Paragon for an answer. “
Scott-Rilton also said that Lab Citizen is still investigating Cancellato’s case and analyzing his phone and data. Cancellato also confirmed this in TechCrunch.
Paragon did not respond to a request for comments.
Copasir also investigated cases Mattia FerrariThe deviation on the Mediterranean rescue ship that saves people. and David JabioPresident and co -founder of the Non -Governmental Organization Refugees in Libyaactive in Italy. Copasir said he found no evidence that Ferrari was targeted, but confirmed that there were evidence that Yambio was a legal objective of surveillance, though not with Paragon’s spyware.
New details revealed by research
As part of her research on the alleged use of the Italian Spyware, Copasir began finding information on the use of Paragon in the country, asking information from other government bodies, as well as the Lab Lab and the owner of Whatsapp Meta.
According to the report, the national prosecutor against Mariti told Copasir that no prosecutor in Italy had or used Paragon’s spyware. (In Italy, every local office of the prosecutor has some level of freedom in Spyware Supply.) Military Police Carabinieri, National Polizia Di Stato and the Guardia di Finanza Financial Crime Service gave the committee the same response.
Paragon told Copasir that he had contracts with two Italian intelligence services, Wise and Aisi. The report said Copasir’s representatives visited DIS, as well as the offices of the two organizations and examined the Spyware database and check records to see how the organizations used the Paragon spyware, including who they are targeting. Representatives concluded that there have been no abuses related to the surveillance of people who have emerged as spyware targets in recent months.
Copasir’s exhibition also revealed new details on how Paragon’s Spyware System works behind the scenes. Copasir said it was verified that in order to use Paragon’s spyware, a operator must be connected to a username and password, and every Spyware development leaves detailed log files, which are on a customer -controlled server and not accessible by Paragon. However, according to Copasir, the customer cannot delete data from the check records on his servers.
The committee also revealed details of the relationship between Paragon and Italian information customers, AISE and AISI, who have stated that they have canceled their contracts with Paragon since then.
Italy’s Foreign Information Service, which began using toner on January 23, 2024 after signing a contract a month earlier, uses Paragon’s spyware with the aim of investigating “illegal immigration, searching for fugitives, fuel smuggling, confrontation, confrontation, and confrontation, of the activities of the organization itself. ”
In this way, the report stated that Aise aims at an “extremely limited” but indefinite number of phone users and has access to both real and stored communications sent to encrypted end to end applications.
Copasir said Aisi, Italy’s domestic intelligence service, began using toner earlier in 2023 and the now canceled contract would have expired on November 7, 2025.
For every Spyware development, organizations said it had the appropriate legal approval, according to the report.
Copasir said he had the opportunity to review Paragon’s contracts with its Italian customers and verify that there are clauses prohibiting the use of Spyware against journalists and human rights activists.
In March, after an investigation, Citizen Lab published a Paragon report that was named The governments of Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel and Singapore as possible customers of the manufacturer Spyware.
Last year, AE Industrial’s US Private Giants bought Paragon for a deal that could reach $ 900 million.
