Father Mattia Ferrari, the chaplain
on board NGO-run migrant
rescue vessel Mediterranea Saving Humans, was warned by Meta
that he had been targeted through the suspected use of hacking
software used by unidentified government entities in February
2024, the organization said on Monday.
The notification received by the priest was "similar to the one
sent to Luca Casarini", the organization's founder and
operations chief who also said he had been spied on by a
yet-unidentified entity since February 2024.
Meta warned Father Ferrari that he had been targeted on the same
day it alerted Casarini, "on February 8 2024".
The pair, along with other members of Mediterranea, were
allegedly spied on through the suspected use of Paragon
Solutions' 'Graphite' military-grade hacking software, said
Mediterranea.
The Citizen Lab, a research team from the University of Toronto,
has been studying on behalf of Mediterranean the alleged hacking
activity and senior researcher John Scott Railton said "being
warned that you have been targeted by an attack supported by a
government entity means the person has been probably selected
for monitoring by using advanced technologies", raising the
possibility that their contacts could have also been targeted.
Mediterranea said Meta has said the hacking software is used to
collect data from, among others, emails, text messages,
Telegram, Skype, Viber, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Signal,
WhatsApp, among others.
Earlier this month, the NGO's legal team, represented by
attorneys Fabio Lanfranca and Serena Romano said they had filed
a legal complaint in Palermo asking authorities to investigate
who allegedly ordered to spy on the phone of the organization's
founder Luca Casarini through the suspected use of Paragon
Solutions' 'Graphite' military-grade hacking software.
Earlier this month, Casarini and the editor-in-chief of online
investigative news outlet Fanpage, Francesco Cancellato, were
reported to be among the targets in Italy.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
