On Friday, at 2:48 pm, Francesco Cancellato received an ominous notice on his mobile phone while at home near Milan.
“This is a message from Whatsapp”, read the message in Italian, which was received by TechCrunch. “In December, Whatsapp has cut off the activities of a spyware company we believe have attacked your device. Our research shows that you may have received a harmful file through Whatsapp and that Spyware may have led to access to your data, including of messages stored on the device. ”
“We have made changes to prevent this particular attack again. However, your device’s operating system may remain compromised due to Spyware,” the message continued.
Cancellato is the first goal to come after the revelation of a hacking campaign using the spyware allegedly made by Paragon Solutions, as Whatsapp claims on Friday.
At that time, WhatsApp said the espionage campaign aimed at about 90 people, including journalists such as Cancellato and members of civil society around the world, including Europe.
“I feel violated,” Cancellato told TechCrunch. He said at first he thought the message was fraud or joke. “You always think in a way that a journalist can be right or spy on, but you do it more than your own paranoia and exorcise the fact that you may be. When someone tells you that it is true, you tend to not believe it, Always tend to believe that is something else. “
Then he said he realized he was real. “You ask yourself, why am I? This is the thing, I mean, what did they want from me? ”
“This is the first question, the second question is what did they get from me? Where did they go? What did they do to me? Once they got into my phone, where there is basically my whole life, my holidays, my friendships, my family, the My bank passwords, there are everything – my work things, “Cancellato said. “And then the third question is who did it?”
Cancellato is the manager of Fanpage.itan Italian news website that is Known for research in corruption, organized crime, Catholic church and The youth-wing of the far -right ruling party in Italy, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
For this Investigation of multiple segments Last year, Fanpage sent journalists to retreat to penetrate Meloni’s “Giovent ou Giovent”, a group that has been part of Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, which has ruled Italy since 2022. People, N-phonetic and Nazi chanting and Nazi chants Slogans and singing about the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Contact us
Do you have more information about Paragon and this spyware campaign? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-bicchierai safely on the signal on +1 917 257 1382, or via the telegraph and keybase @lorenzofb or email. You can also contact TechCrunch via securedrop.
Cancellato said he decided go out publicly Because, as a journalist, his job is to mention the news. However, he said he did not want to think who was behind him. At this point, there are many unanswered questions. Including whether his phone was actually a hacker or unsuccessfully targeted, what the hackers were and who ordered the attack.
WhatsApp said the hacking campaign was carried out by Paragon Solutions, an Israeli government manufacturer Spyware allegedly selling a product to spy on encrypted applications such as Whatsapp and Signal, called Graphite, As the Forbes reported in 2021.
A WhatsApp spokesman did not respond to a request for a comment asking if the company could confirm that Cancellato was a target.
The guardian He reported a person close to the company saying that Paragon Solutions sold its products to 35 Democratic Government customers. And the Israeli news outlet ynetnews referenced Monday that Italy is a Paragon customer.
Also on Monday, the Guardian referenced This Libyan activist based in Sweden Husam El Gomati was also informed by Whatsapp as one of the goals of the hacking campaign. Olive oil It was a vocal critical Italy’s relationship with Libya, especially an agreement between the two countries to prevent immigrants from crossing the Mediterranean.
TechCrunch did not receive a response after contacting the Italian government’s press office, as well as Fabrizio Alfano, the head of the Meloni Press Office, by email and Whatsapp.
Paragon Solutions has cultivated the reputation that it is responsible for surveillance technology seller. On its official websiteThe company says “provides our customers tools, groups and ideas to disrupt the intolerable threats”.
An anonymous source of Paragon solutions Said to New Yorker Last year that the company’s agreement with US immigration and customs imposition months earlier in September was the result of a control procedure where the company allegedly showed it could prevent its technology from being used by other countries against Americans, but not by US government
Paragon Solutions was acquired in December 2024 by the US Private Stock Giant AE Industrial Partners.
Paragon Solutions and AE Industrial did not respond to a request for comments.
WhatsApp’s message to Cancellato suggested that it could contact Lab Lab, a team of digital rights at the University of Toronto, which has explored and exposed spyware abuses around the world, including Ethiopia, Mexico, Morocco, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Spain.
Cancellato, who said that together with Fanpage came in contact with the authorities, Techcrunch that “he did what the message asked me.”
“It is really very strange for a journalist to spy on a western democracy,” Cancellato said, adding that the phone he is targeting was the company’s device, so “is an attack on fanpage. It’s not an attack on me.”
