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WhatsApp recently confirmed that about 90 journalists and civil society people were targeted by spyware from Paragon Solutions, an Israeli company. It was reported that this was zero-click hacking, which means that the data of the device can be accessed even without the user clicking on any link. Such spyware has been a topic of discussion before. In the latest agreement, hackers allegedly used malicious electronic documents, which automatically hack a device as soon as it reaches it. It is reported that Paragon sells its spyware exclusively to governments. WhatsApp has also issued a warning to its users regarding this.

After confirming that journalists and members of civil society in several countries around the world were targeted by Paragon Solutions' spyware, WhatsApp has now issued a warning to its users. WhatsApp has admitted that the devices of the affected users have been remotely tampered with. A WhatsApp official told Reuters (via NDTV) that it has detected an attempt to hack about 90 users. The Meta-owned platform also reported that it was a zero-click hack.

What is a 'zero-click' hack?

It is very difficult for a common user to avoid a zero-click hack, as it gets activated automatically as soon as a file comes on the device. For this, the user does not even have to click on any link or file. As soon as a file is received in the device, the spyware starts its work. It does its work in the background so that users do not even get a clue. Let us tell you that a WhatsApp official has told Reuters that malicious electronic documents were sent to the affected users.

The report further states that WhatsApp had since stopped the hacking attempt and was referring the target to Canadian internet monitoring group Citizen Lab. The official declined to discuss how he determined that Paragon was responsible for the hack.