ICE revitalizes its contract with Spyware Maker Paragon

Last year, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) signed a $2 million worth of contract with Israeli spyware manufacturer Paragon.

Shortly afterwards, the Biden administration will review the contract, issue a “suspension work order,” determine whether the contract complies with the commercial spyware executive order, and restrict U.S. government agencies from violating human rights and targeting Americans overseas.

Almost a year later, ICE lifted the suspension work order when the contract appeared to be exhausted and active, according to public records.

“This agreement is for a fully configured, unique solution, including licenses, hardware, warranty, maintenance, training, and more. This change is to cancel a stop work order,” read the August 30 update of the US Government’s federal procurement data system, a database of government contracts.

Independent journalist Jack Paulson first reported the news in his newsletter.

Paragon has developed the image of being a “ethical” and responsible spyware maker for many years, in contrast to controversial spyware providers such as the hacking team, Intelexa and the NSO group. Paragon claims on its official website it provides its customers with “ethically based tools, teams and insights.”

Spyware makers face an ethical dilemma. With ICE’s information technology division becoming more active, it’s up to Paragon to decide whether he wants to continue his relationship with Ice, an agency that has dramatically increased the mass deportation and expanded surveillance capabilities since Donald Trump took over the White House.

Paragon spokesman Emily Horn and Executive Chair John Fleming did not respond to requests for comment.

In February this year, to demonstrate its integrity, Fleming told TechCrunch that the company would only sell to the US government and other unspecified allies.

Paragon had already had to face a troublesome ethical dilemma. In January, WhatsApp revealed that around 90 users, including journalists and human rights workers, had been targeted by Paragon spyware called Graphite. In the next day and weeks, Italian journalist Francesco Cancerrato and several local pro-immigration activists moved forward saying they were among the victims.

In response to the scandal, Paragon cut ties with the Italian government. The Italian government has launched an investigation to determine what happened during that time. Then, in June, the digital rights research group Citizen Lab confirmed that two other journalists, an unknown European and a colleague from Cancellato, had been hacked with Paragon spyware.

The Italian parliamentary committee concluded that spies from immigration activists were legal, but argued that there was no evidence that a former Paragon client, the Italian intelligence agency, targeted Cancerato.

John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, has been investigating cases of spyware abuse for over a decade, told TechCrunch that “these tools were designed for dictatorship rather than democracy built on the freedom and protection of individual rights.”

Researchers said even spyware is “corrupted,” meaning that “democratic spyware scandals are on the rise, including Paragon’s graphite. What’s even worse, Paragon still protects spyware abusers.