Ontario police may have secretly used controversial Israeli spyware, report finds
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) may have secretly utilized controversial Israeli spyware technology, according to researchers. Citizen Lab, a group that investigates digital espionage against civil society, released a report identifying potential links between the OPP and Paragon Solutions, a company that sells military-grade spyware called Graphite to government clients.
Graphite has the capability to hack into phones and has been recently used against an Italian journalist and activists who supported migrants. Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp reported to nearly 100 users in January that their cellphones may have been compromised. Amnesty International called the discovery out of Italy alarming, highlighting the worsening digital surveillance across Europe.
Based on a tip from a collaborator, Citizen Lab found suspected deployments of Paragon’s Graphite tool at five IP addresses in Ontario, one of which was traced back to OPP headquarters in Orillia. OPP did not confirm or deny the use of Paragon spyware, stating that any interception of private communications requires judicial authorization and is only used in serious criminal investigations.
Paragon, founded in Israel in 2019 and now U.S.-owned, provides clients with cyber and forensic capabilities, cyber workforce training, and critical infrastructure analysis and threat mitigation. The company’s founders include former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Ehud Schneorson, the former commander of Israel’s Unit 8200.
Kate Robertson, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, emphasized the need for governments and privacy regulators to question the use of spyware against citizens and for law enforcement agencies to be transparent about their tools. Citizen Lab previously reported in 2020 that the OPP developed a technology to scrape communications from private, password-protected online chatrooms without obtaining judicial authorization.
The group’s report also highlighted evidence of a growing ecosystem of spyware capability among both the RCMP and Ontario-based police services. In 2022, the RCMP admitted to using spyware in over 30 investigations dating back to 2017 without consulting the public or the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. OPP and the Toronto Police Service were also found to have used ODIT software, with other police services in Ontario seeking authorization to deploy similar tools.
The expansion of spyware capabilities among multiple police services in Ontario underscores a lack of public awareness regarding the extent of mercenary spyware deployment in Canada. Efforts to reach the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada for comment were unsuccessful.
This article sheds light on the potential use of spyware by law enforcement agencies in Ontario, raising concerns about privacy and surveillance issues. It is essential for governments to address these issues and ensure transparency in the use of such technologies to protect the rights and freedoms of citizens.
