WhatsApp has revealed it has disrupted a spyware hacking campaign targeting journalists and prominent members of civil society. The spyware in question belongs to Paragon, a commercial spyware company founded by former Israeli intelligence officers, which Meta-owned WhatsApp has directly implicated in the campaign.

An official with Meta Platforms' popular WhatsApp chat service said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions had targeted scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society.

According to the chat service, an Israeli company called Paragon Solutions used group chats and PDFs to target the individuals.

Meta Platforms Inc.’s WhatsApp messenger service said it disrupted a hacking campaign linked to Israeli spyware firm Paragon.WhatsApp detected efforts to hack the phones of approximately 90 people, including journalists and members of civil society,

Nearly 100 journalists and other members of civil society using WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Meta, were targeted by spyware owned by Paragon Solutions, an Israeli maker of hacking software, the company alleged today. The journalists and other civil society… pic.twitter.com/AiFfyJX08y — TheMuslimLawyer (@faisalkutty) January 31, 2025

A senior executive at chat service WhatsApp alleged that Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions attempted to breach the devices of 90 users including journalists, "Reuters" reports. Paragon declined to comment on the report.

WhatsApp has since taken action to disrupt the hacking attempt and is working with Citizen Lab, a Canadian internet watchdog group, to assist the affected users.

WhatsApp told TechCrunch that it believed the hacking campaign happened in December, and that it sent a cease and desist letter to Paragon. Idan Nurick, the CEO of Paragon, did not respond to a request for comment sent via LinkedIn. AE Industrial did not respond to a request for comment.

(Reuters) - An official with Meta's popular WhatsApp chat service said the Israeli spyware company Paragon targeted scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society. The official said Friday that WhatsApp had sent Paragon a cease-and-desist letter following the hacking.