NSO Group was hit with a major setback after a United States court banned the Israeli cyber-intelligence firm from installing spyware on WhatsApp.
According to France24, a US district judge on Friday, October 17, in a landmark ruling of the lawsuit filed late in 2019, declared that NSO Group could not target WhatsApp users with spyware.
District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, in a court ruling seen by AP, said that the "concluded that defendants' conduct causes irreparable harm, and there being no dispute that the conduct is ongoing," ordering NSO Group to stop spying on WhatsApp users.
Evidence presented during the trial revealed that NSO Group hacked WhatsApp to secretly install spyware on users' devices, and they kept changing the spyware to avoid getting caught and bypass Meta-owned messaging app security measures.
Praising the court ruling, WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart wrote on X, “Today’s ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again. We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society. It sets an important precedent that there are serious consequences to attacking an American company.”
Hamilton noted that the cyber-intelligence firm’s actions were not bad enough to hit it with a large financial fine, reducing the initially demanded $168 million damages to $4 million.
WhatsApp sued NSO Group in 2019, accusing them of spying on journalists, lawyers, activists, and others through the app.
