Overview

• Public contracting records show ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations cyber division lifted the suspension on Aug. 29, restoring a $2 million Paragon deal.
• ICE’s agreement covers a configured package with licensing, hardware, training, and maintenance, though the agency has not disclosed specific operational uses.
• Graphite can compromise phones, read messages from encrypted apps like Signal and WhatsApp, extract data and cloud backups, track location, and activate microphones.
• Paragon cut ties with Italy after reports and forensic findings linked Graphite to surveillance of journalists and migrant advocates, and WhatsApp issued a cease-and-desist.
• AE Industrial Partners acquired Paragon and combined it with Virginia-based REDLattice, a shift that preceded the reinstatement and drew civil-liberties warnings from researchers and Sen. Ron Wyden.