"On Thursday, the findings of the parliamentary committee investigating Italy's usage of the spyware were published, in a rare incident of a Western state shedding light into a usually secretive world of intelligence agencies and covert surveillance.
The committee confirmed that Paragon provided Graphite to two Italian agencies, including the country's external intelligence service, starting in 2023. The version of Graphite provided did not include the ability to activate the phone's microphone or camera, the report said.
Instead, it only enabled its operators access to encrypted communications on the hacked devices. The report also confirmed that Graphite exploited a vulnerability in WhatsApp that Meta identified and patched in December 2024, one month before the spyware's activity was publicly disclosed.
The vulnerability's discovery also caused "panic" at Israel's military intelligence Unit 8200, according to the recent Israeli television report.
The Italian committee also confirmed Meta's claim that several activists involved in migrant rights in Italy had their phones hacked, including Luca Casarini, Giuseppe Caccia, and David Yambio – though in Yambio's case, the hack was carried out not by Graphite but by another unnamed spyware."
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2025-06-05/ty-article/.premium/italy-admits-activists-were-hacked-with-israeli-spyware-but-not-journalists/00000197-3ff4-d079-ab97-7ff5bd8a0000