Italy admits hacking activists with Israeli spyware Paragon
Italy admits hacking activists with Israeli spyware Paragon
An Italian parliamentary committee has confirmed that the government used the Israeli-made spyware Graphite, developed by the offensive cyber company Paragon, to hack the smartphones of several activists working with migrants.
The committee confirmed that Paragon provided Graphite to two Italian agencies, including the country's external intelligence service, starting in 2023. The version of Graphite provided did not include the ability to activate the phone's microphone or camera, the report said. Instead, it only enabled its operators access to encrypted communications on the hacked devices.
The report also confirmed that Graphite exploited a vulnerability in WhatsApp that Meta identified and patched in December 2024, one month before the spyware's activity was publicly disclosed. The vulnerability's discovery also caused "panic" at Israel's military intelligence Unit 8200, according to the recent Israeli television report.
In other words, our good democratic ally in the Middle East is doing good things.
Say the line Bart!
sigh, "Unlike insert socialist country here, the West has freedom of speech and the right to express your opinions without the secret police coming after you."
YAYYYYYYY!
Fuck all those spying countries. But yea still I believe in the west you get in trouble for acting, not just speaking
This is a cool way to protect a belief, narrowing the scope so that the refuting data do not apply anymore. Perhaps I can write a fucking essay about it, but do you have data to support this narrowing move? There is like a ton of data that the West has been invasively spying of possible threats to the status quo (from Cointelpro to undercover UK cops like recently), not just people "acting on it". Furthermore, actions can fall under protected free speech as well, like putting up a poster, demonstrating, and protesting. So your proposal is inherently undemocratic if you roll back freedom to only protect oral expression, quite similar to a "Don't ask don't tell" attitude towards gay people. What you just said is simply counter-factual. Blanket surveillance is a staple of Western societies in the 21st century, and it blows my mind that there are still people oblivious to what is more or less spelled out clearly in the Patriot Act and all laws modeled after it across the globe.
it only enabled its operators access to encrypted communications...
what the heck? isnt this much worse than simple microphone access?
“Only”
“only”
"We only broke into your house and stole your shit, we didn't stab you in your sleep. You're welcome. "
Reminds me of when the NSA was spying on Yahoo Video calls so they could do their early facial recognition training.
Since it was a platform mostly used for video sex, The NSA literally made a public statement saying they had a system to blur genitals and that they were "only" training facial recognition data.
My mind was fucking blown. Who cares if you film my dick? That doesn't let you identity me from the MacDonald's cameras you hacked into. The face data is what we were worried about.
I think it means in the encrypted state. Still, bad.
Why does this not surprise me??