ICE contract with Paragon spyware revived

TechCrunch reports that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reactivated a $2 million contract with Israeli spyware vendor Paragon, lifting a Biden-era stop work order meant to evaluate the agreement's adherence to a commercial spyware-focused executive order. Such an update on the contract's status was first discovered by independent journalist Jack Poulson on the Federal Procurement Data System. Paragon has not yet provided any comment on the development, which comes after it had severed its relationship with the Italian government due to the illicit use of its Graphite spyware to surveil journalists and activists. Meanwhile, spyware tools have been noted by Citizen Lab senior researcher John Scott-Railton to be geared toward dictatorships. "There's a growing pile of spyware scandals in democracies, including with Paragon's Graphite. Worse, Paragon is still shielding spyware abusers. Just look at the still-unexplained hacks of Italian journalists," Scott-Railton added.