Another person who was allegedly targeted on WhatsApp with spyware made by Israeli company Paragon has come forward.
Beppe Caccio, one of the co-founders of Mediterranea Saving Humans, an Italian non-government organization that helps immigrants, told TechCrunch that he had been targeted by the spyware campaign.
Caccio disclosed he was targeted after another one of his organization’s co-founders, Luca Casarini, said publicly last week that he had also received a notification from WhatsApp alerting him to the suspected spyware attack.
On Monday, during a press conference organized by Sandro Ruotolo, an Italian member of the European Parliament, Casarini said that he filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office in Palermo, Italy, regarding the alleged hack. Casarini said his goal was to find out who targeted him and his organization.
“We don’t have anything to hide. Those who spy have a lot to hide,” said Casarini.
Prior to Caccio, three other people have also come forward saying they received a notification from WhatsApp about being among the around 90 people targeted with spyware made by Paragon. The other three victims include Francesco Cancellato, the director of news website Fanpage.it; Libyan activist Husam El Gomati, who lives in Sweden and works on immigration issues relating to Italy and Libya; and Casarini.
News of the spyware campaign broke on January 31, when WhatsApp said it had disrupted the campaign and notified around 90 people who had been targeted. WhatsApp did not attribute the campaign to a particular government, nor has Paragon revealed which government customer was behind the campaign.
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The Italian government denied involvement in the hacking campaign. In a press release, the Italian prime minister’s office said legally protected subjects, including journalists, were not targeted by Italian intelligence services.
In the same press release, the Italian government said that Meta told it there were other targets in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.
Apart from Austria, none of these country’s governments, contacted either through their U.S. embassies or other governmental bodies, responded to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior told TechCrunch that the Paragon attacks are known to its local authorities, but also declined to provide more information.
During the same press conference attended by Casarini on Monday, David Yambio, the co-founder of the Italy-based NGO Refugees in Libya, said that he had also been targeted by a spyware campaign. Yambio said he wasn’t targeted through WhatsApp, but told The Guardian that Apple notified him about a “a mercenary spyware attack” on November 13.
At this point, it’s unclear if Yambio was part of the same hacking campaign as those targeted by Paragon’s spyware.
Neither Paragon nor a spokesperson for the Italian government responded to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.
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