With its headquarters located in Virginia, USA, Paragon Solutions is well-known for its Graphite spyware, a program similar to the notorious Pegasus program created by NSO Group. Graphite gives the operator full access to a device when it is installed, including the ability to read communications transmitted by encrypted applications like Signal and WhatsApp.
The announcement from WhatsApp comes after the company recently won a lawsuit against another Israeli spyware manufacturer, NSO Group. A California judge found NSO accountable in December for breaching the platform's terms of service and US hacking laws by hacking 1,400 WhatsApp users in 2019. In 2021, NSO was placed on a US Commerce Department blacklist for actions that were thought to be against US national security interests.