A US judge ruled on Friday in favor of WhatsApp, owned by Meta platforms, in a lawsuit accusing the Israeli group ” NSO “of exploiting a loophole in the WhatsApp application to install spyware that allows monitoring 1,400 people, including journalists, human rights activists and dissidents.
According to court documents, Judge Phyllis Hamilton concluded that the “NSO” Group was responsible for the hack and breach of contract.
Hamilton noted that the case will now proceed to trial only on the issue of damages.
Will Cathcart, president of WhatsApp, said the ruling was a “win for privacy”. “We have spent five years presenting our case because we firmly believe that spyware companies cannot hide behind immunity or avoid accountability for their illegal actions,”he continued in a social media post.
“Surveillance companies should be aware that illegal spying will not be tolerated,”he added.
Cybersecurity experts welcomed the ruling.
John Scott Railton, senior researcher at Canadian internet surveillance firm Citizen Lab-which first highlighted NSO’s Pegasus spyware in 2016 – described the ruling as historic and with “huge implications for the spyware industry”.
He said in an instant message: “the entire industry has hidden behind the claim that everything that its customers do with their hacking tools is not their responsibility… Today’s ruling makes it clear that the NSO Group is in fact responsible for violating many laws,”he said.
In 2019, WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against NSO seeking an injunction and damages, accusing it of accessing the platform’s servers without permission six months ago to install Pegasus software on the victims ‘ mobile devices.
The lawsuit claimed that the hack allowed the surveillance of 1,400 people, including journalists, human rights activists and dissidents.
“NSO” claimed that Pegasus helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the fight against crime and the protection of national security and that its technology is intended to help catch terrorists, pedophiles and criminals.
