Ontario police may have secretly used controversial Israeli spyware, report finds [Video]

Researchers say Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) may have secretly used controversial Israeli spyware technology, raising concerns about potential spying on citizens. 

Citizen Lab, which investigates digital espionage against civil society, released a report Wednesday identifying “possible links” between the OPP and Paragon Solutions, a company that sells military-grade spyware called Graphite to government clients. 

Graphite can be used to hack into phones, and was recently found to have been used against an Italian journalist and activists who supported migrants, after Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp reported to nearly 100 users in January that their cellphones may have been compromised. 

Human rights group Amnesty International called the discovery out of Italy “alarming” and said it underscored worsening digital surveillance across Europe. 

Based on a tip from a collaborator, Citizen Lab mapped out servers connected to Paragon’s Graphite tool and found  suspected deployments at five IP addresses in Ontario. One of those IP addresses was traced to OPP headquarters in Orillia, Ont.

OPP did not confirm or deny the use of Paragon …