The crime-fighting app that caused a phone-hacking scandal in Italy

The demand for spyware technology has been driven in part by the rise in popularity of encrypted mobile phone apps. — Bloomberg

After successfully creating a healthcare app for doctors to view medical records, Diego Fasano, an Italian entrepreneur, got some well-timed advice from a police officer friend: Go into the surveillance business because law enforcement desperately needs technological help.

In 2014, he founded a company that creates surveillance technology, including powerful spyware for police and intelligence agencies, at a time when easy-to-use encrypted chat apps such as WhatsApp and Signal were making it possible for criminal suspects to protect phone calls and data from government scrutiny.