US court bars NSO Group from using spyware on WhatsApp
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A US court bans Israeli spyware company NSO Group from using its spyware on WhatsApp and cuts Meta’s $168 million damage claim to $4 million, citing a lack of precedent in smartphone-era surveillance.
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A logo is shown on a branch office of the Israeli NSO Group company near the southern Israeli settlement of Sapir on August 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
A US district court has permanently barred the Israeli spyware maker NSO Group from using its tools to target WhatsApp users, while significantly reducing a major financial penalty initially levied against the firm.
District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, in a ruling seen by AFP, stated that NSO Group's actions caused irreparable harm to Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company. While the court denied the original $168 million damages award, it approved a reduced sum of $4 million.
The ruling emphasized the continued threat posed by NSO’s operations, granting an injunction that prevents the group from ever targeting WhatsApp users again.
"Today’s ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again," said WhatsApp head Will Cathcart in a statement. "We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society."
Read more: US takes Meta to court over Instagram, WhatsApp acquisitions
NSO spyware deployed through WhatsApp vulnerabilities
Evidence presented at trial revealed that NSO Group reverse-engineered WhatsApp’s code to surreptitiously install spyware on users’ devices. According to the court, the spyware was continuously updated to evade detection and counter security measures implemented by WhatsApp.
The 2019 lawsuit filed in California federal court accused NSO of deploying cyberespionage tactics against journalists, lawyers, human rights advocates, and other civil society members via the encrypted messaging platform.
The complaint stated that approximately 1,400 devices were targeted with malicious code, enabling the spyware to gain access to data, microphone, and camera functions, even bypassing the app’s end-to-end encryption after messages were decrypted on the device.
In her decision, Judge Hamilton cited a lack of legal precedent for awarding such a large sum in electronic surveillance cases involving smartphones.
“There have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era for the court to be able to conclude that defendants' conduct was 'particularly egregious',” the ruling said, as reported by AFP. “As time goes on, more of a shared societal consensus may emerge about the acceptability of defendants' conduct.”
NSO group and the Pegasus controversy
NSO Group, founded in 2010 by Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, operates out of Herzliya near Tel Aviv. The firm is best known for developing Pegasus, a powerful surveillance tool capable of turning any smartphone into a covert spying device by accessing its camera, microphone, and data.
Although NSO claims it sells Pegasus only to governments for counterterrorism and criminal investigations, the software has been linked to regimes accused of human rights violations and authoritarian surveillance.
A recent report by TechCrunch revealed that a US investment firm has taken a controlling interest in the company, raising further questions about oversight and accountability.
