WhatsApp accuses Israeli spyware NSO Group's Pegasus of targeting users again
Meta has asked a US federal court to hold Israeli spyware company NSO Group in contempt, alleging that the firm allowed its Pegasus surveillance technology
Meta has asked a US federal court to hold Israeli spyware company NSO Group in contempt, alleging that the firm allowed its Pegasus surveillance technology to be deployed against WhatsApp users through a spear-phishing campaign that it says directly violates a judicial order issued last year expressly prohibiting such activity. WhatsApp Says NSO Group Violated Court Order by Linking Its Pegasus Technology to Malicious Links Sent to Users The contempt motion, announced via a Meta blog post on Monday, follows the detection of malicious links on the messaging platform that the company has attributed to NSO Group's technology. Also Read | WhatsApp vs Pegasus: A well deserved win for Zuckerberg The Israeli spyware firm NSO shared links were designed to redirect users to websites operating outside of WhatsApp, according to a company spokesperson, in what security researchers describe as a spear-phishing attack — a targeted form of digital deception aimed at specific individuals rather than a broad population. WhatsApp said it had disrupted the campaign before any devices were compromised. The company said it became aware of the attempts after prospective targets independently reported the suspicious activity to the platform.
Meta did not identify which of NSO Group's government clients it believed had authorised the campaign. NSO Pegasus Phishing Campaign Targeted Fewer Than 10 WhatsApp Users, Mostly in Jordan and Lebanon The operation was limited in scope. Fewer than 10 WhatsApp users were targeted, the majority of them based in Jordan and Lebanon, a Meta representative confirmed. Also Read | Pegasus maker, other spyware firms roped in to track hostages in Gaza Among the domain links shared by the company as evidence of the campaign was one constructed to impersonate France 24, the Paris-based state-owned international news and television network. Meta declined to identify the individuals targeted or provide further details about the accounts involved. NSO Group Already Faces a Federal Injunction Barring It From Targeting WhatsApp The contempt allegation sits within the context of an existing federal court order that expressly prohibits NSO Group from accessing WhatsApp's systems or targeting its users. That injunction followed a landmark verdict last May in which a federal jury ordered NSO to pay Meta $167 million in damages to resolve a si year legal dispute, after NSO used its Pegasus software to compromise approximately 1,400 WhatsApp accounts belonging to journalists, human rights advocates and government officials across 20 countries in a 2019 campaign.
The BriefWire