Spyware maker Paragon confirms US government is a customer

Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions confirmed to TechCrunch that it sells its products to the U.S. government and other unspecified allied countries. Paragon’s executive chairman John Fleming said in a statement to TechCrunch on Tuesday that “Paragon licenses its technology Read More …

Meta’s WhatsApp says spyware company Paragon targeted users in two dozen countries

An official with Meta Platforms’ (META.O), opens new tab popular WhatsApp chat service said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions had targeted scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society. The official said on Friday that WhatsApp had Read More …

WhatsApp scores historic victory against NSO Group in long-running spyware hacking case

A U.S. judge has ruled that Israeli spyware maker NSO Group breached hacking laws by using WhatsApp to infect devices with its Pegasus spyware. In a historic ruling on Friday, a Northern California federal judge held NSO Group liable for Read More …

Israeli spyware startup Paragon acquired by U.S.-based private equity fund for up to $900M

Israeli offensive cyber company Paragon will be acquired by the U.S.-based private equity fund AE Industrial Partners for an initial payment of $500 million, with an additional $400 million contingent on meeting business milestones. Despite the acquisition, Paragon will remain Read More …

APT trends report Q3 2024

In the second half of 2022, a wave of attacks from an unknown threat actor targeted victims with a new type of attack framework that we dubbed P8. The campaign targeted Vietnamese victims, mostly from the financial sector, with some Read More …

4 more nations sign on to US-led counter-spyware agreement

Austria, Estonia, Lithuania and the Netherlands on Sunday joined a U.S.-led pact designed to deter global spyware abuses, marking 21 nations signing onto the agreement after the alliance began with 11 participants in March of last year. The add-ins were Read More …

Internet surveillance firm Sandvine says it’s leaving 56 ‘non-democratic’ countries

Sandvine, the makers of surveillance-ware that allowed authoritarian countries to censor the internet and spy on their citizens, announced that it is leaving dozens of “non-democratic” countries as part of a major overhaul of the company. The company, which was Read More …

State-backed attackers and commercial surveillance vendors repeatedly use the same exploits

Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) observed multiple in-the-wild exploit campaigns, between November 2023 and July 2024, delivered from a watering hole attack on Mongolian government websites. The campaigns first delivered an iOS WebKit exploit affecting iOS versions older than 16.6.1 Read More …

Buying Spying: How the commercial surveillance industry works and what can be done about it

Private sector firms have been involved in discovering and selling exploits for many years, but there is a rise in turnkey espionage solutions. Commercial Surveillance Vendors (CSVs) offer pay-to-play tools that bundle an exploit chain designed to get past security Read More …