US court bars Israeli spyware firm from targeting WhatsApp users

A judge in the United States slashed a previous damages award of just $ 4 million and has now quashed an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users.

District judge Phyllis Hamilton said the Israeli company’s conduct caused “irreparable harm” and that there was “no disputing that the conduct is ongoing” in a ruling on Friday that granted the owner of WhatsApp, Meta, an injunction to stop NSO’s spyware from being used in the messaging service.

One of the main goals of WhatsApp’s service, Hamilton claimed, is privacy, which NSO’s conduct “serves to defeat.”

Informational privacy is a part of what businesses like WhatsApp are “selling,” she said, and any unauthorised access interferes with that sale.

Hamilton argued in her ruling that the evidence at trial demonstrated NSO had repeatedly reverse-engineered WhatsApp’s code to evade detection and bypass security fixes by installing its spyware Pegasus on users’ phones.

NSO was established in Herzliya, an Israeli port city close to Tel Aviv, in 2010 and has its headquarters there.

Operators can remotely install spyware into devices using Pegasus, a highly invasive program designed to aid in the fight against crime and terrorism.

NSO claims that NSO only sells the spyware to government intelligence and law enforcement organizations that have been thoroughly checked. However, in late 2019, the owner of WhatsApp, Meta, filed a lawsuit in California federal court, accusing NSO of using its spyware to target journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists.

National governments, some of which have poor human rights records, have also used NSO’s software to attack critics, according to independent experts.

Given NSO’s “multiple design-arounds” to infect WhatsApp users, including missed phone calls and “zero-click” attacks, as well as the “covert nature” of the firm’s work more generally, Judge Hamilton said her broad injunction was appropriate.

WhatsApp’s CEO, Will Cathcart, stated in a statement that the “ruling prohibits spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again.”

“We applaud this decision, which comes after six years of litigation in which NSOs have targeted members of civil society. He claimed that it establishes a significant precedent for serious consequences from attacking an American business.

The judge found that Meta could not ascertain whether similar harm was being caused on the other platforms without more evidence after Meta requested an extension of the injunction to apply to its other products, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Additionally, Hamilton determined that the court lacked “sufficient basis” to support the jury’s initial calculation, and that an initial award of $ 168 million against NSO for damages to Meta in May of this year was excessive.

According to Hamilton, “the court has not yet been able to draw the conclusion that defendants’ conduct was “particularly egregious” because there were not yet enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era.”