Francesco Nicodemo, a consultant who works with left-wing politicians in Italy, has come forward as the latest person targeted with Paragon spyware in the country. On Thursday, Nicodemo stated in a Facebook post that for ten months he chose not to publicize his case because he did not want to be used for political propaganda, but now he believes the time has come. He wrote that it is time to ask a very simple question: why was such a sophisticated and complex tool used to spy on a private citizen as if he were a drug trafficker or a threat to the country. Nicodemo said he has nothing more to say and that others must now speak and explain what happened.
The online news site Fanpage first reported that Nicodemo was among the people who received a WhatsApp notification in January. This revelation that Nicodemo was targeted with Paragon spyware widens the scope of the ongoing spyware scandal in Italy, which has ensnared several victims from various positions in society. These include several journalists, immigration activists, prominent business executives, and now a political consultant with a history of working for the center-left Democratic Party and its politicians.
Governments and spyware makers have long claimed their surveillance products are used against serious criminals and terrorists, but these recent cases show that this is not always true. John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at The Citizen Lab, stated that the Italian government has given some spyware targets clarity and explained their cases, but others remain troublingly unclear. Scott-Railton, who has investigated spyware companies for years, confirmed that Nicodemo received the notification from WhatsApp. He said the situation does not look good for Paragon or for Italy, and that clarity from the Italian government is essential. He believes Paragon could provide more clarity on what is happening, and until it does, these cases will remain a weight around its neck.
Natale De Gregorio, who works with Nicodemo at their public relations firm Lievito Consulting, said in an email that Nicodemo did not wish to comment beyond his statements to Fanpage and his public Facebook post. It is currently unclear which Paragon customer targeted Nicodemo. However, an Italian parliamentary committee confirmed in June that some of the victims in Italy were targeted by Italian intelligence agencies, which are under the purview of right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. A spokesperson for the Italian prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Jennifer Iras, the vice president of marketing for REDLattice, a cybersecurity company that merged with Paragon after the Israeli spyware maker was acquired by a US private equity giant, also did not respond to a request for comment. In February, following the revelations of the first wave of victims in Italy, Paragon cut ties with its government customers in Italy, specifically the intelligence agencies AISE and AISI.
Later in June, the Italian Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic, known as COPASIR, concluded that some of the publicly identified Paragon spyware victims, namely the immigration activists, were lawfully hacked by Italian intelligence services. However, COPASIR said there was no evidence that Francesco Cancellato, the director of Fanpage, an Italian news website that has investigated the youth wing of the far-right ruling party, had been targeted by Italy’s intelligence agencies. COPASIR also did not investigate the case of Cancellato’s colleague Ciro Pellegrino.
Paragon, which has confirmed the US government is one of its customers, has an active contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.