An Israeli firm, NSO Group, the developer of the notorious Pegasus spyware, has been ordered to pay WhatsApp a $167 million for hacking WhatsApp users.
The ruling, delivered after a six-year legal battle, holds NSO accountable for hacking approximately 1,400 WhatsApp users in 2019.
Pegasus, a sophisticated piece of malicious software, possesses the capability to be covertly installed on mobile phones, granting unauthorized access to a device’s microphone, camera, messages, and other sensitive data.
NSO Group, which markets this technology, has faced widespread accusations of enabling authoritarian regimes to conduct surveillance on journalists, human rights activists, and even prominent political figures.
WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, hailed the verdict as a “first victory against the development and use of illegal spyware.”
This landmark judgment marks the first instance where a spyware developer has been held directly responsible for exploiting vulnerabilities within smartphone platforms.
In response to the ruling, NSO Group stated that it would “carefully examine the verdict’s details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal.”
The company maintains that its technology is intended solely for use by authorized government agencies to combat serious crime and terrorism. However, critics argue that Pegasus has been misused by certain nations to target individuals perceived as threats to national security, regardless of genuine criminal activity.
The controversy surrounding Pegasus reached a fever pitch in 2021 following the leak of a list containing 50,000 phone numbers believed to be potential targets of the spyware.
Subsequent investigations by global media outlets identified numerous high-profile individuals on this list, including politicians, heads of state, business executives, activists, members of Arab royal families, and over 180 journalists.
Further fueling the scandal, Canadian investigative group The Citizen Lab reported suspicions that Pegasus spyware had infected devices belonging to officials within Downing Street and the UK Foreign Office.
Other prominent figures reportedly targeted include French President Emmanuel Macron and individuals connected to Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian government critic who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
Meta said that “the jury’s decision to force NSO to pay damages is a critical deterrent to this malicious industry against their illegal acts aimed at American companies.”
“This trial also revealed that WhatsApp was far from NSO’s only target. While we stopped the attack vector that exploited our calling system in 2019, Pegasus has had many other spyware installation methods to exploit other companies’ technologies to manipulate people’s devices into downloading malicious code and compromising their phones. NSO was forced to admit that it spends tens of millions of dollars annually to develop malware installation methods including through instant messaging, browsers, and operating systems, and that its spyware is capable of compromising iOS or Android devices to this day.”
NSO Group, in its statement, reiterated its stance: “We firmly believe that our technology plays a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism and is deployed responsibly by authorised government agencies.”
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