After the merger with REDLattice, the Israeli company Paragon will go public on the stock exchange. It is the company that created the Graphite spyware used to hack the phones of Italian activists and journalists, including the director Francesco Cancellato and Ciro Pellegrino of Fanpage.it.
Comparethe Israeli company behind the spyware Graphite who spied journalists And activists Italians – including the director Francesco Cancellato And Ciro Pellegrino Of Fanpage.it – will be listed in bag. The operation will take place through a merger with one SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) listed on NASDAQwhich is the second stock exchange largest in the world by market capitalization (and the first totally electronic stock market in history). A SPAC is a corporate investment vehicle that has as its primary objective acquisition financing and only in subsequent phases the investment. As specified by calcalistech.com, the listing of Paragon will take place with a pre-money valuation of 1.25 billion dollarswhich represents the value attributed to the company before the injection of new capital linked to the listing operation.
This move to the stock market is closely connected to a transaction occurred at the end of 2024, when the US investment company AE Industrial Partners (a private equity fund) acquired the Israeli startup – founded in 2019 by a former IDF commander – and merged it with REDLattice. The latter is a company US cybersecurity which, on its website, defines itself as a “global technological leader in cyber defense”, with “strong national security expertise, capable of providing critical solutions for military, intelligence and law enforcement missions.” Despite the merger, Paragon continued to hold the reins under the agreement research, development And innovationwhose heart has remained firmly anchored to Tel Aviv.
As indicated by calcalistech.com, the two companies together generated revenues for 267 million dollars in 2025, with a significant growth of 29 percent compared to the previous year. With the new operation, the growth target will aim even higher. Among those who commented negatively on this stock market operation was Dr John Scott Railtonsenior researcher at Citizen Labthe research center of the University of Toronto (Canada) which together with Half managed to identify dozens of phones of activists and journalists hacked by the Graphite spyware developed by the Israeli company. “I foresee trouble,” the scientist wrote in a post on X, the late Twitter, adding that “stock markets call for growth, but the total pool of potential paid spyware customers who (a) won’t abuse the tool and/or (b) are disciplined enough to never get caught is finite.” In essence, this operation could encourage the use of sophisticated spying software by malicious actors.
The government has forgotten the Paragon case, the EU has not: “The investigations continue”
In his post he directly mentions theItalyunderlining that in our country “there is no shortage of abuse”, as highlighted by the cases of our colleagues. Citizen Lab’s report on the Graphite case criticized the Italian governmentdue to no answers about who would use this software to spy on journalists and activists. Advanced spyware, theoretically, should be used to spy on electronic devices Of terrorists and members of organized crimebut in the wrong hands they can turn into a tool to be hurled against political opponents, information specialists and other figures considered “inconvenient”.
Although the government is “overlooking” the very delicate Paragon case, the EU has once again turned the spotlight on with the latest Report on the Rule of Law. The powers of attorney Rome And Naples they identified the AISI (Information and Internal Security Agency – the internal secret services) as the instigator for the violation of the devices of the activists of Mediterranea Saving Humans Beppe Caccia And Luca Casarinibut the director of Fanpage.it Francesco Cancellato has not been identified. Following the emergence of this matter, Paragon severed relationships with Italian clients (intelligence agencies) by removing access to the Graphite software. The government claims that the interruption occurred to protect the national security and that the software has never been used to surveil journalists.
