Italian prosecutors have confirmed that two immigration activists and a journalist were hacked with spyware at the same time in late 2024, suggesting all three were part of a single “infection campaign”. The finding by prosecutors in Rome and Naples marks an independent confirmation of a domestic spying scandal that has dogged the government of Giorgia Meloni.
The journalist is Francesco Cancellato, editor-in-chief of the online investigative outlet Fanpage, which has published critical reporting on Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, including an exposé of young fascists in its youth organisation. The activists are Giuseppe Caccia and Luca Casarini, both pro-immigrant campaigners. The hacking was discovered after WhatsApp revealed that 90 people, including journalists and members of civil society, had been targeted by software made by Paragon Solutions, an Israeli-founded spyware maker now owned by US investors.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the prosecutors said traces of malware were found exclusively on three Android devices, and that the presumed period of compromise dated back to the early hours of 14 December 2024. “The serial execution of three attacks on the same night suggests that they may have been part of a single infection campaign,” they said. The investigation could not find evidence that Italy’s secret services had also spied on Cancellato, but it would continue working to identify the perpetrators.
The finding differs from an earlier report by the parliamentary committee for security (Copasir), which said intelligence agencies had legally targeted Caccia and Casarini but found no evidence that Cancellato had been hacked. The prosecutors’ confirmation deepens the mystery of who targeted him and why. Paragon has cancelled its contract with the Italian government after reports first emerged that Cancellato had been targeted, and has said its terms of service forbid agencies from using the technology against journalists or members of civil society.
Cancellato said the prosecutors’ report was “a small, important step towards the truth”. “Now I know for certain that on December 14, 2024, something really did happen on my phone, someone really did get in and steal my messages,” he said, adding that he wanted politicians and the government to help identify those responsible. The scandal has contributed to a decline in press freedom in Italy, with the country’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index sliding from 41st place in 2023 to 49th in 2025.
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, said the prosecutors’ findings were an important vindication of WhatsApp’s decision to alert users that they had been targeted. Meloni has denied any involvement in the hacking, saying her administration was “offering its support” to get to the truth and that “my life has ended up in the newspapers”.
