Graphite Caught: First Forensic Confirmation of Paragon’s iOS Mercenary Spyware Finds Journalists Targeted - The Citizen Lab
citizenlab.ca
On April 29, 2025, a select group of iOS users were notified by Apple that they were targeted with advanced spyware. Among the group were two journalists who consented to the technical analysis of their cases. In this report, we discuss key findings from our forensic analyses of their devices.

Archived

A forensic investigation - that is still ongoing - has confirmed the use of Paragon’s Graphite spyware platform in zero-click attacks that targeted Apple iOS devices of at least two journalists in Europe.

Canada’s Citizen Lab says that the victims were a prominent European journalists who requested anonimity and Ciro Pellegrino, a journalist at Italian publication Fanpage.it.

The researchers identified an indicator linking both cases to the same Paragon operator.

A third alleged spy case follows from a notification by Meta.

Yet to date, there has been no explanation as to who is responsible for spying on these journalists. The attacks occurred in early 2025.

“The lack of accountability available to these spyware targets highlights the extent to which journalists in Europe continue to be subjected to this highly invasive digital threat, and underlines the dangers of spyware proliferation and abuse,” Citizen Lab says.

[…]

  • huppakee@feddit.nlEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    Yet to date, there has been no explanation as to who is responsible for spying on these journalists. The attacks occurred in early 2025.

    AP mentions the Italian government might be behind it, they don’t offer any proof but can’t imagine they’d make such aligation without reason.

    ROME (AP) — Spyware from a U.S.-backed Israeli company was used to target the phones of at least three prominent journalists in Europe, two of whom are editors at an investigative news site in Italy, according to digital researchers at Citizen Lab, citing new forensic evidence of the attacks.

    The findings come amid a growing questions about what role the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni may have played in spying on journalists and civil society activists critical of her leadership, and raised new concerns about the potential for abuse of commercial spyware, even in democratic countries.
    https://apnews.com/article/spyware-italy-paragon-meloni-pegasus-f36dd32106f44398ee24001317ccf2bb