Migrant-rescue NGO Mediterranea
Saving Humans said on Wednesday that its founder and mission
chief Luca Casarini had been spied on by a yet-unidentified
entity since February 2024, after an analysis conducted by The
Citizen Lab, a research team from the University of Toronto
Earlier this month, the NGO's legal team, represented by
attorneys Fabio Lanfranca and Serena Romano said they had filed
a legal complaint in Palermo asking authorities to investigate
who allegedly ordered to spy on the phone of the organization's
founder Luca Casarini through the suspected use of Paragon
Solutions' 'Graphite' military-grade hacking software.
"In February 2024, many months before the identification of warm
Graphite, a yet unidentified entity operated a 'sophisticated'
software attack, attempting to force the accounts of Luca
Casarini", said the NGO on Wednesday, discussing the espionage
case concerning Casarini.
Casarini says he has been notified that he was among those
targeted by Paragon Solutions' 'Graphite' military-grade hacking
software to spy on scores of activists and journalists in many
countries, including Italy.
"The presence of Graphite, detected on the victim's phone since
November 2024 and communicated to him on January 31 2025 by the
company Meta, leaves no doubt on the fact that only government
agencies could have used such technology", stressed the NGO.
According to Citizen Lab, the type of attack waged in February
2024, "must be taken very seriously and generally means that a
government is monitoring you and wants to also extend its
control over the people close to you".
Last week, the government denied reports that Paragon Solutions,
which allegedly only works with state entities, had terminated
its client relationship with Italy amid a furore over the
alleged illegal use of its hacking software.
Casarini and the editor-in-chief of online investigative news
outlet Fanpage, Francesco Cancellato, were reported to be among
the victims in Italy.
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