Apple has sent a wave of threat notifications to victims in over 100 countries. Some, but not all, were connected to the Paragon spyware that affected WhatsApp users earlier this year.
Since these attacks targeted journalists and activists from across the political spectrum, I am assuming that more law enforcement and intelligence agencies are utilizing targeted spyware for their own purposes.
Apple this week sent threat notifications advising users in 100 countries that their phones had been targeted by advanced commercial spyware, according to a victim of the attacks.
Cyrus Pellegrino, an Italian journalist who received a notification, came forward in a column published Wednesday.
A second victim, right-wing Dutch author and pundit Eva Vlaardingerbroek, posted on X Wednesday that she too received the Apple notification.
Pellegrino works for Fanpage, whose editor, Francesco Cancellato, revealed he had been targeted with Paragon spyware in late January. Cancellato had previously exposed young fascists inside prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party.
It is unclear what type of spyware targeted Pellegrino and Vlaardingerbroek’s phones, but in his article revealing the attack Pellegrino noted “some elements would seem to indicate” the targeting of his device is linked to 90 Paragon attacks WhatsApp reported detecting in January.