Israeli newspaper Haaretz later confirmed The Guardian’s report, adding that Paragon had terminated its deal with two Italian government agencies — a law enforcement agency and an intelligence agency — and disconnected their access to its spyware product called Graphite, according to the paper’s anonymous sources.

The Italian government has confirmed in a statement that seven of its citizens, and many others across Europe, were targeted by Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions.

Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions confirmed to TechCrunch that it sells its products to the U.S. government and other unspecified allied countries.

WhatsApp has revealed it has disrupted a spyware hacking campaign targeting journalists and prominent members of civil society. The spyware in question belongs to Paragon, a commercial spyware company founded by former Israeli intelligence officers, which Meta-owned WhatsApp has directly implicated in the campaign.

Italy faced pressure on Friday to explain its relationship with Israeli spyware maker Paragon following reports that the company had cut ties with Rome over allegations that the government had used its technology to hack the phones of critics instead of criminals.