Overview

• Italy and Paragon have ended their spyware contract, offering conflicting accounts over who initiated the termination.
• Paragon says it offered to help investigate alleged targeting of Francesco Cancellato but Italian authorities refused.
• Government sources say officials declined Paragon’s audit proposal to avoid exposing classified intelligence data and protect national security.
• A COPASIR report confirmed that Italy’s domestic and foreign intelligence services used Paragon spyware on a limited number of targets, including Mediterranea charity members, under prosecutor approval and explicit authorization by Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano for activists Luca Casarini and Beppe Caccia in September 2024.
• The report also found no evidence that Francesco Cancellato was surveilled by Paragon’s technology despite earlier notifications to his device.