Researchers name several countries as potential Paragon spyware customers

The governments of Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, and Singapore are doubtless clients of Israeli spyware and adware maker Paragon Options, in accordance with a brand new technical report by a famend digital safety lab.

On Wednesday, The Citizen Lab, a gaggle of teachers and safety researchers housed on the College of Toronto that has investigated the spyware and adware trade for greater than a decade, published a report in regards to the Israeli-founded surveillance startup, figuring out the six governments as “suspected Paragon deployments.”

On the finish of January, WhatsApp notified around 90 users that the corporate believed had been focused with Paragon spyware and adware, prompting a scandal in Italy, the place some of the targets live. 

Paragon has lengthy tried to differentiate itself from opponents, equivalent to NSO Group — whose spyware and adware has been abused in several countries — by claiming to be a extra accountable spyware and adware vendor. In 2021, an unnamed senior Paragon government told Forbes that authoritarian or non-democratic regimes would by no means be its clients. 

In response to the scandal prompted by the WhatsApp notifications in January, and in what was maybe an try and bolster its claims about being a accountable spyware and adware vendor, Paragon’s government chairman John Fleming told TechCrunch that the corporate “licenses its expertise to a choose group of world democracies — principally, america and its allies.”

Israeli information retailers reported in late 2024 that U.S. venture capital AE Industrial Partners had acquired Paragon for at the very least $500 million upfront.

Within the report out Wednesday, Citizen Lab mentioned it was in a position to map the server infrastructure utilized by Paragon for its spyware and adware device, which the seller codenamed Graphite, based mostly on “a tip from a collaborator.”

Ranging from that tip, and after growing a number of fingerprints able to figuring out related Paragon servers and digital certificates, Citizen Lab’s researchers discovered a number of IP addresses hosted at native telecom corporations. Citizen Lab mentioned it believes these are servers belonging to Paragon clients, partly based mostly on the initials of the certificates, which appear to match the names of the nations the servers are positioned in. 

In keeping with Citizen Lab, one of many fingerprints developed by its researchers led to a digital certificates registered to Graphite, in what seems to be a major operational mistake by the spyware and adware maker.

“Sturdy circumstantial proof helps a hyperlink between Paragon and the infrastructure we mapped out,” Citizen Lab wrote within the report. 

“The infrastructure we discovered is linked to webpages entitled ‘Paragon’ returned by IP addresses in Israel (the place Paragon is predicated), in addition to a TLS certificates containing the group title ‘Graphite’,” the report mentioned.

Citizen Lab famous that its researchers recognized a number of different codenames, indicating different potential governmental clients of Paragon. Among the many suspected buyer nations, Citizen Lab singled out Canada’s Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), which particularly seems to be a Paragon buyer on condition that one of many IP addresses for the suspected Canadian buyer is linked on to the OPP.

TechCrunch reached out to spokespeople for the next governments: Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, and Singapore. TechCrunch additionally contacted the Ontario Provincial Police. Not one of the representatives responded to our requests for remark. 

When reached by TechCrunch, Paragon’s Fleming mentioned that Citizen Lab reached out to the corporate and supplied “a really restricted quantity of data, a few of which seems to be inaccurate.” 

Fleming added: “Given the restricted nature of the knowledge supplied, we’re unable to supply a remark presently.” Fleming didn’t reply when TechCrunch requested what was inaccurate about Citizen Lab’s report, nor responded to questions on whether or not the nations recognized by Citizen Lab are Paragon clients, or the standing of its relationship with its Italian clients. 

Citizen Lab famous that each one the those that had been notified by WhatsApp, who then reached out to the group to have their telephones analyzed, used an Android cellphone. This allowed the researchers to establish a “forensic artifact” left by Paragon’s spyware and adware, which the researchers known as “BIGPRETZEL.”

Meta spokesperson Zade Alsawah instructed TechCrunch in an announcement that the corporate “can verify that we consider that the indicator Citizen Lab refers to as BIGPRETZEL is related to Paragon.” 

“We’ve seen first-hand how business spyware and adware may be weaponized to focus on journalists and civil society, and these corporations should be held accountable,” learn Meta’s assertion. “Our safety staff is consistently working to remain forward of threats, and we’ll proceed working to guard peoples’ potential to speak privately.”

Provided that Android telephones don’t all the time protect sure system logs, Citizen Lab famous that it’s doubtless extra folks had been focused by the Graphite spyware and adware, even when there was no proof of Paragon’s spyware and adware on their telephones. And for the individuals who had been recognized as victims, it’s not clear in the event that they had been focused on earlier events.

Citizen Lab additionally famous that Paragon’s Graphite spyware and adware targets and compromises particular apps on the cellphone — while not having any interplay from the goal — moderately than compromising the broader working system and the system’s information. Within the case of Beppe Caccia, one of the victims in Italy, who works for an NGO that helps migrants, Citizen Lab discovered proof that the spyware and adware contaminated two different apps on his Android system, with out naming the apps.

Focusing on particular apps versus the system’s working system, Citizen Lab famous, could make it more durable for forensic investigators to search out proof of a hack, however could give the app makers extra visibility into spyware and adware operations. 

“Paragon’s spyware and adware is trickier to identify than opponents like [NSO Group’s] Pegasus, however, on the finish of the day, there is no such thing as a ‘excellent’ spyware and adware assault,” Invoice Marczak, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, instructed TechCrunch. “

Perhaps the clues are elsewhere than we’re used to, however with collaboration and data sharing, even the hardest circumstances unravel.” 

Citizen Lab additionally mentioned it analyzed the iPhone of David Yambio, who works intently with Caccia and others at his NGO. Yambio acquired a notification from Apple about his cellphone being focused by mercenary spyware and adware, however the researchers couldn’t discover proof that he was focused with Paragon’s spyware and adware. 

Apple didn’t reply to a request for remark.