US immigration agents will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump administration to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications.

The Department of Homeland Security first entered into a contract with Paragon, now owned by a US firm, in late 2024, under the Biden administration. But the $2m contract was put on hold pending a compliance review to make sure it adhered to an executive order that restricts the US government’s use of spyware, Wired reported at the time.

That pause has now been lifted, according to public procurement documents, which list US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) as the contracting agency.

  • Taldan@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It has also said it has a no tolerance policy and will cut off government clients who use the spyware to target members of civil society, such as journalists

    Citizen Labs confirmed joirnalists have been targeted

    Nice of The Guardian to repeat their obvious lie without immediately calling it out. This is just NSO Group 2.0. They’re moving all the engineers over because even the US was willing to sanction NSO Group after everything they did