A day after Meta said that Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions had targeted nearly 100 WhatsApp users, including journalists and members of civil society, with its sophisticated spyware called Graphite, a person close to the matter told HT that Indian users were not affected by the said spyware.
“No Indian users were affected by this,” the person said, requesting anonymity.
WhatsApp, meanwhile, said it has disrupted a hacking campaign linked to Paragon, citing it as an example to emphasise the need to hold such spyware firms accountable for their unlawful actions.
“WhatsApp has disrupted a spyware campaign by Paragon that targeted a number of users including journalists and members of civil society. We’ve reached out directly to people who we believe were affected. This is the latest example of why spyware companies must be held accountable for their unlawful actions,” a spokesperson for WhatsApp said in a statement. “WhatsApp will continue to protect peoples’ ability to communicate privately.”
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Earlier, British daily The Guardian in its report had cited WhatsApp as saying that it had “high confidence” that the 90 users in question were targeted and “possibly compromised”. WhatsApp also said that it had sent Paragon a “cease and desist” letter and that it was exploring its legal options, the report further said. WhatsApp reportedly disrupted the attacks in December last year but was not sure for how long the targets may have been under threat.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, British daily The Guardian in its report had cited WhatsApp as saying that it had “high confidence” that the 90 users in question were targeted and “possibly compromised”. WhatsApp also said that it had sent Paragon a “cease and desist” letter and that it was exploring its legal options, the report further said. WhatsApp reportedly disrupted the attacks in December last year but was not sure for how long the targets may have been under threat.
{{/usCountry}}The latest disclosure harks back to WhatsApp’s 2019 lawsuit against the Israeli spyware maker NSO Group — the first-of-its-kind move where a Silicon Valley giant had sought to hold a company from Israel’s powerful hacking industry accountable. WhatsApp had claimed that NSO Group’s Pegasus was used to infect mobile phones of about 1,400 people across the world. These included at least 121 Indians, including many linked to Bhima Koregaon case.
In December, the district court of Northern District of California had concluded that the NSO Group was liable for hacking WhatsApp’s servers.
WhatsApp was yet to respond to HT’s questions whether it had sent a cease-and-desist letter to NSO Group as well before filing a lawsuit against it, and if it would similarly sue Paragon Solutions as well.
Paragon’s spyware Graphite is reportedly similar to Pegasus wherein it compromises the device in question and can thus remotely access all information on the device, including decrypted WhatsApp and Signal messages.