An official from Meta’s widely used WhatsApp messaging service reported that the Israeli spyware firm Paragon Solutions had targeted numerous users, including journalists and civil society members.
On Friday, the official indicated that WhatsApp had issued a cease-and-desist letter to Paragon in response to the hacking incident. In its statement, WhatsApp affirmed its commitment to safeguarding users’ rights to private communication.
Paragon Solutions chose not to provide any comments on the matter.
The WhatsApp representative informed Reuters that an attempt to hack around 90 users of the platform had been identified.
The official refrained from disclosing specific identities or geographical locations of the targeted individuals, only mentioning that the group included various civil society and media representatives. He noted that WhatsApp had successfully “disrupted” the hacking attempt.
Furthermore, the official did not elaborate on how the attribution to Paragon was determined. He mentioned that law enforcement and “industry partners” had been notified about the hacking incident but did not provide further details.
It is worth mentioning that in 2023, Meta explicitly denied any intentions to introduce advertisements to the popular messaging service, as reported by TechCrunch.
