logo
Meta's WhatsApp says Israeli spyware company Paragon targeted users

Meta's WhatsApp says Israeli spyware company Paragon targeted users

USA Today31-01-2025
Meta's WhatsApp says Israeli spyware company Paragon targeted users
Show Caption
Hide Caption
WhatsApp, OpenAI team for new talk, text ChatGPT feature
OpenAI introduced a new WhatsApp feature, 1-800-CHATGPT, that allows users to talk to and text ChatGPT.
An official with Meta Platforms' META.O popular WhatsApp chat service said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions had targeted scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society.
The official said on Friday that WhatsApp had sent Paragon a cease-and-desist letter following the hack. In a statement, WhatsApp said the company "will continue to protect people's ability to communicate privately."
Paragon declined to comment.
The WhatsApp official told Reuters it had detected an effort to hack approximately 90 users.
The official declined to say who, specifically, was targeted. But he said those targeted were based in more than two dozen countries, including several people in Europe. He said WhatsApp users were sent malicious electronic documents that required no user interaction to compromise their targets, a so-called zero-click hack that is considered particularly stealthy.
The official said WhatsApp had since disrupted the hacking effort and was referring targets to Canadian internet watchdog group Citizen Lab. The official declined to discuss how it determined that Paragon was responsible for the hack. He said law enforcement and industry partners had been informed, but declined to give details.
The FBI did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Citizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton said the discovery of Paragon spyware targeting WhatsApp users "is a reminder that mercenary spyware continues to proliferate and as it does, so we continue to see familiar patterns of problematic use."
Privacy tips: Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds' warning
Spyware merchants such as Paragon sell high-end surveillance software to government clients and typically pitch their services as critical to fighting crime and protecting national security.
But such spy tools have repeatedly been discovered on the phones of journalists, activists, opposition politicians, and at least 50 U.S. officials, raising concerns over the unchecked proliferation of the technology.
Paragon - which was reportedly acquired by Florida-based investment group AE Industrial Partners last month - has tried to position itself publicly as one of the industry's more responsible players.
Its website advertises "ethically based tools, teams, and insights to disrupt intractable threats," and media reports citing people familiar with the company say Paragon only sells to governments in stable democratic countries.
Natalia Krapiva, senior tech-legal counsel at the advocacy group Access Now, said Paragon had the reputation of being a better spyware company, "but WhatsApp's recent revelations suggest otherwise."
"This is not just a question of some bad apples — these types of abuses (are) a feature of the commercial spyware industry."
AE did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington and James Pearson in London; Editing by Jan Harvey and Rod Nickel
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Investing in Intermap Technologies (TSE:IMP) three years ago would have delivered you a 631% gain
Investing in Intermap Technologies (TSE:IMP) three years ago would have delivered you a 631% gain

Yahoo

time35 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Investing in Intermap Technologies (TSE:IMP) three years ago would have delivered you a 631% gain

Generally speaking, investors are inspired to be stock pickers by the potential to find the big winners. Mistakes are inevitable, but a single top stock pick can cover any losses, and so much more. Take, for example, the Intermap Technologies Corporation (TSE:IMP) share price, which skyrocketed 631% over three years. It's also good to see the share price up 45% over the last quarter. Anyone who held for that rewarding ride would probably be keen to talk about it. So let's assess the underlying fundamentals over the last 3 years and see if they've moved in lock-step with shareholder returns. This technology could replace computers: discover the 20 stocks are working to make quantum computing a reality. There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement. During three years of share price growth, Intermap Technologies moved from a loss to profitability. Given the importance of this milestone, it's not overly surprising that the share price has increased strongly. You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values). It is of course excellent to see how Intermap Technologies has grown profits over the years, but the future is more important for shareholders. It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on how its financial position has changed over time. A Different Perspective It's nice to see that Intermap Technologies shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 413% over the last year. Since the one-year TSR is better than the five-year TSR (the latter coming in at 23% per year), it would seem that the stock's performance has improved in recent times. In the best case scenario, this may hint at some real business momentum, implying that now could be a great time to delve deeper. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Intermap Technologies better, we need to consider many other factors. Even so, be aware that Intermap Technologies is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about... For those who like to find winning investments this free list of undervalued companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on Canadian exchanges. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Sign in to access your portfolio

Similarweb Launches GenAI Intelligence Toolkit, Tracking Visibility and Traffic Across AI Chatbots
Similarweb Launches GenAI Intelligence Toolkit, Tracking Visibility and Traffic Across AI Chatbots

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Similarweb Launches GenAI Intelligence Toolkit, Tracking Visibility and Traffic Across AI Chatbots

New offering delivers a full-funnel view of brand performance – measuring where your brand is seen and how much traffic it receives, versus competitors, from platforms like ChatGPT. TEL AVIV, Israel, July 28, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Similarweb's new GenAI Intelligence Toolkit is an innovative solution combining AI Brand Visibility and AI Traffic, letting companies see how they are represented on AI platforms and the value of AI-generated traffic to their digital marketing and sales. As generative AI begins to shift the overall digital marketing mix away from traditional search, marketers, merchants, and digital leaders are seeking to understand when AI chatbots are recommending their business and how much traffic they drive to company websites. In June 2025, AI platforms including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and CoPilot generated more than 1.1 billion referral visits, a year-over-year increase of 357%, according to Similarweb estimates. Similarweb's GenAI Intelligence Toolkit distinguishes itself by providing both visibility and traffic data for GenAI, giving businesses a comprehensive picture of their performance across AI-powered discovery and search tools. The GenAI Intelligence Toolkit gives brands the ability to: Connect visibility and traffic. Lets brands understand their performance across AI platforms. See where your brand is (and isn't) showing up. AI Brand Visibility shows brands which topics are most associated with the company and the top cited sources within AI answers. For example, you can identify when an AI platform is being influenced by news outlets or review sites that favor your competitors, enabling you to strategically prioritize improving your visibility and placement within those channels. Benchmark and act. GenAI Intelligence Toolkit users gain visibility into the volume of AI-driven traffic to their landing pages and those of their competitors and what prompts are generating traffic. Understand AI traffic. Traffic still matters. Conversions, engagement, and revenue happen after the click. Gen AI Intelligence arms you with the knowledge you need to optimize your content and strategy to boost traffic for the AI channel. Gain new consumer insight. Unlike traditional search keywords, detailed AI queries offer deeper insight into consumer intent, enabling more precise analysis and targeted engagement. While other AI brand visibility tools exist, visibility alone is not enough. Similarweb's GenAI Intelligence Toolkit goes further, identifying which ones drive traffic to specific pages. Powered by Similarweb's industry-leading Digital Data, it uniquely enables organizations to measure traffic to their own properties and also benchmark against competitor performance, offering a comprehensive view of how generative AI is reshaping the landscape. See our blog post for more details. What Similarweb Customers Are Saying "With AI searches on the rise and featured heavily within industry news, I get asked a lot of questions on the regular by senior company executives – they want to know how much of our traffic is coming from AI platforms, and what this might mean for our future strategy," says Jon Baldwin, Senior SEO Content Manager at pet care company Rover. "Similarweb's tool has enabled me to quickly and easily answer these questions with compelling visuals, which senior leaders always appreciate – especially if they're presenting to their board or other business partners." "Similarweb's AI Traffic feature is a game changer, offering valuable insights into how AI chatbots are reshaping brand discovery," agrees Ben Newman, Insights and Effectiveness Manager at Anything is Possible, a UK digital agency. "The AI Traffic feature supports our SEO and Content teams, while also revealing the prompts users are entering, helping us better understand client audiences and what matters to them before they visit a website." "Our SEO team is able to benchmark against competition and understand better our share in AI platforms," says Piotr Szpakiewicz, SEO Growth Leader at "A second feature I like is AI Brand Visibility, which allows me to evaluate our current brand visibility and mention share, but, more importantly, gives us a glimpse into real user prompts. With this AI tracking setup, we can understand how our SEO tech and content translate strategies into chatbot traffic, which prompts triggered mentions of our brand, and where we are cited as a source." Part of Similarweb's Broader AI Initiatives "We recognize that AI represents a fundamental shift in the digital marketplace," says Or Offer, founder and CEO of Similarweb. "We are committed to helping our customers understand how business and consumer use of AI is reshaping the web. At the same time, we're taking advantage of AI across our product development and engineering organizations to improve data analysis and make insights more accessible to our customers. With our recent launch of full-service AI Agents, we're also putting that power in the hands of our customers – for example, agents to help marketers identify search traffic trends and fill content gaps." The Gen AI Intelligence Toolkit is available now. Similarweb Gen AI Data in the News Journalists seeking to help their readers understand the impact of Gen AI are invited to send their questions to press@ Recent coverage includes: The Washington Post, Digiday, MediaPost, TechCrunch, Press Gazette, and others reported on the increase in referral traffic AI platforms are driving to news and media websites – even as publishers worry that AI summaries of their content are depriving them of readers. TechCrunch based its report on the websites receiving the most AI referral traffic by industry category on Similarweb data. As part of our work with journalists covering Amazon's Prime Day promotion in June, Similarweb data revealed that ChatGPT prompts including the words "Prime Day" increased 101% compared to 2024 – suggesting that more consumers were looking to chatbots for advice on the best deals. About Similarweb Similarweb powers businesses to win their markets with Digital Data. By providing essential web and app data, analytics, and insights, we empower our users to discover business opportunities, identify competitive threats, optimize strategy, acquire the right customers, and increase monetization. Similarweb products are integrated into users' workflow, powered by advanced technology, and based on leading comprehensive Digital Data. Learn more: Similarweb | Similarweb Digital Data Free Tools: Analyze any website or app | Verify your website | Browser extension Follow us: Blog | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram | X Disclaimer: All names, brands, trademarks, and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The data, reports, and other materials provided or made available by Similarweb consist of or include estimated metrics and digital insights generated by Similarweb using its proprietary algorithms, based on information collected by Similarweb from multiple sources using its advanced data methodologies. Similarweb shall not be responsible for the accuracy of such data, reports, and materials, and shall have no liability for any decision made or action taken by any third party based in whole or in part on such data, reports, and materials. View source version on Contacts Press: David F. Investors: Rami Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store