A minister told parliament that while the government does have a contract with Israeli cyber solutions firm Paragon, it has not overstepped the law in its use of spyware technology.
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00:00The Italian government denied on Wednesday that it had spied on journalists and migrant
00:06activists using spyware after at least seven Italian cell phones were apparently hacked
00:11with military-grade surveillance technology.
00:16On January 31st, MEDA's WhatsApp informed dozens of people across Europe that they had
00:20been targeted in a spyware attack using technology from Israeli cyber firm Paragon Solutions.
00:28Among the Italians targeted were Luca Casarini, the head of migrant rescue group Mediterranea
00:33Saving Humans, and Francesco Cancellato, editor of the fan page website, both of whose work
00:39has been critical of the government.
00:58The Italian government confirmed it has had a contract with Paragon Solutions to provide
01:13intelligence-gathering capabilities to fight terrorism and other threats to national security.
01:18However, they insisted that the law was rigorously respected and denied the government had used
01:24the technology to spy on journalists illegally.