Vas Panagiotopoulos

The United States has emerged as the largest investor in commercial spyware—a global industry that has enabled the covert surveillance of journalists, human rights defenders, politicians, diplomats, and others, posing grave threats to human rights and national security.

The Israeli spyware maker, still on the US Commerce Department’s “blacklist,” has hired a new lobbying firm with direct ties to the Trump administration, a WIRED investigation has found.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has signed a $2 million contract with Israeli commercial spyware vendor Paragon Solutions, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.

The one-year contract between the company’s US subsidiary in Chantilly, Virginia, and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations Division 3 was signed on September 27 and covers a “fully configured proprietary solution including license, hardware, warranty, maintenance and training.”

The widespread use of commercial spyware for unlawful surveillance across Europe has raised alarm – but the funding of such tools has largely gone under the radar. Follow the Money can reveal how millions in EU subsidies and taxpayer money in member states are supporting an industry criticised for undermining democracy and freedom of speech.

A stranger reading your messages, tracking your movements, scrolling through your photos. That's what spyware can do – without you even knowing. It’s marketed as a tool to fight terrorism and crime, but it’s also used to silence journalists, activists, and political opponents. Greek journalist Vas Panagiotopoulos reveals how the EU and national governments give public funds to companies behind this powerful surveillance technology linked to human rights abuses and political repression. The same firms accused of helping authoritarian regimes are cashing in on European taxpayer money.

A $2 million contract that United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed with Israeli commercial spyware vendor Paragon Solutions has been paused and placed under compliance review, WIRED has learned.

On New Year’s Eve, NSO Group—the Israel-based company behind the Pegasus spyware, one of the world’s most sophisticated cyberweapons—quietly released a new transparency report.
The 27-page document is carefully worded—even apologetic—and is intended to demonstrate resilience, progress, and responsibility to further strengthen the company’s human rights compliance program. It claims the company has “opened 19 investigations into allegations of potential product mis...

NSO’s lobbying efforts provide a stark case study of how spyware firms deploy vast resources to influence government and democratic decision-making in pursuit of their commercial interests.
In November, in a surprise development, the company announced that former United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman would become its chairman.
Friedman, described by US President Donald Trump as a “long-time friend and trusted adviser,”...

Interview for Italian state TV RAI3.

The widespread use of commercial spyware for illegal surveillance across Europe has raised alarm, yet the funding behind these tools has largely gone unnoticed. Investigative journalist Vas Panagiotopoulos has revealed how millions of dollars from EU subsidies and EU member state taxpayers’ money are supporting an industry criticised for undermining democracy and freedom of expression.

Paragon Solutions, an Israeli commercial spyware vendor linked to the surveillance of European journalists and civil society members has set up shop in the EU’s most powerful country: Germany.

Twenty-two governments, including those of sixteen EU member states, have signed a Code of Practice outlining political commitments and recommendations to tackle the irresponsible use of commercial hacking tools, including spyware. The US confirmed only yesterday its willingness to sign the Code – several days after most other participating countries had done so – in a move that will undoubtedly inject greater geopolitical interest into the initiative.

Danny Mekić, an Amsterdam-based PhD researcher, was studying a proposed European law meant to combat child sexual abuse when he came across a rather odd discovery. All of a sudden, he started seeing ads on X, formerly Twitter, that featured young girls and sinister-looking men against a dark background, set to an eerie soundtrack.

This fall, more than 15,000 cameras will monitor soccer fans across eight stadiums and on the streets of Doha during the 2022 World Cup, an event expected to attract more than 1 million football fans from around the globe.
“What you see here is the future of stadium operations,” the organizers’ chief technology officer, Niyas Abdulrahiman, proudly told AFP in August. “A new standard, a new trend in venue operations, this is our contribution from Qatar ...

Wired reports on how Qatar will be using an unprecedented level of surveillance at the World Cup.

Paragon Solutions, the Israeli company behind Graphite spyware, appears to be active in more EU countries than it has been previously known, according to a new report published today.