A Northern California court ruled that NSO Group was responsible for hacking approximately 1,400 WhatsApp users’ devices* using Pegasus spyware. This is a precedent-setting decision: no court has held the Pegasus developer responsible for abuse, although its software has been repeatedly found on hundreds of phones, including diplomats, officials, activists, journalists and other civil society representatives.
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The court’s decision could cause enormous financial damage to NSO Group, which claims its software was used only on the devices of national security and law enforcement personnel.
WhatsApp* sued the Israeli developer in 2019, and only now did a Northern California federal judge, Phyllis Hamilton, rule that NSO Group violated not only the terms of its data security agreement with the messenger, but also the federal Abuse Act and computer fraud. (CFAA) and the Comprehensive Regional Data Fraud and Access Act (CDAFA).
“After five years of litigation, we are grateful for today’s decision,” WhatsApp* said in a statement. “NSO can no longer escape responsibility for its illegal attacks on WhatsApp, journalists, human rights defenders and civil society.”
“This is the first successful case against NSO Group, in which NSO was found guilty of compromising the digital security infrastructure trusted by millions of people using Pegasus spyware,” said Natalia Krapiva, senior technical attorney at Access Now. , cited by The Recording Media.
The court has yet to determine the amount of compensation that NSO should pay, but this victory has already shown spyware companies around the world that “the time of impunity is over and they will be responsible for undermining the security of devices.” and platforms. as well as human rights.”
One of the reasons for the court’s harsh ruling was that NSO presented as evidence source code that could only be viewed by Israeli citizens located in Israel, rather than “the complete source code in accessible form.”
Additionally, several company witnesses testified that they developed exploits used to hack WhatsApp*. Court documents also show that WhatsApp* security repeatedly blocked Pegasus intrusions.
A high-profile lawsuit provided a glimpse into the inner workings of a shady spyware maker and gathered evidence that the process of developing new malware literally never stops. The claim for damages will begin in March 2025.
*belongs to the extremist recognized and banned in the Russian Federation Meta
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
