Source: in-cyprus.philenews.com
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gained access to sophisticated phone hacking technology after the Trump administration lifted a compliance review that had paused a $2 million contract with Israeli-founded spyware company Paragon Solutions.
The Department of Homeland Security initially signed the contract with Paragon in late 2024 under the Biden administration, but implementation was suspended pending review of compliance with executive orders restricting government spyware use.
Public procurement documents now list ICE as the contracting agency for the technology, called Graphite, which can infiltrate mobile phones and access encrypted applications including WhatsApp and Signal.
ICE gains access to phone hacking technology after Biden pause lifted
Graphite enables users to track individuals’ locations, read messages and photographs, access encrypted communications, and use phones as listening devices by manipulating recording functions.
The technology represents one of the most powerful surveillance tools available, developed outside the United States and now deployed by an agency facing repeated accusations from civil rights groups of due process violations.
Journalist Jack Poulson first reported the contract’s approval in his All-Source Intelligence newsletter. Neither Paragon nor ICE responded to requests for comment.
The Biden administration had established restrictions on commercial spyware use, stating the government “shall not make operational use of commercial spyware that poses significant counterintelligence or security risks” or risks of foreign misuse.
Civil rights groups raise concerns over surveillance expansion
Paragon has differentiated itself from rival NSO Group, which the Biden administration blacklisted for supplying spyware to authoritarian governments targeting dissidents, human rights activists and journalists.
The Israeli-founded company, now US-owned, claims to conduct business only with democracies and maintains zero-tolerance policies against targeting civil society members. However, Paragon does not disclose clients or monitor technology usage.
John Scott-Railton of the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab described such tools as “designed for dictatorships, not democracies built on liberty and protection of individual rights.”
“Invasive, secret hacking power is corrupting,” Scott-Railton said, referencing growing spyware scandals in democratic nations, including Italy where Paragon’s technology targeted 90 individuals including journalists and human rights activists.
Nadine Farid Johnson of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute called the contract approval concerning given ICE’s “rapid and dramatic expansion of budget and authority.”
“Spyware like Paragon’s Graphite poses a profound threat to free speech and privacy,” Johnson said, urging congressional intervention to limit deployment circumstances.
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