NSO Group’s notorious spyware Pegasus was used to target 1,223 WhatsApp users in 51 different countries during a 2019 hacking campaign, according to a new court document. The document was published on Friday as part of the lawsuit that Meta-owned WhatsApp filed against NSO Group in 2019, accusing the surveillance tech maker of exploiting a vulnerability in the chat app to target hundreds of users, including more than 100 human rights activists, journalists, and “other members of civil society.”
The country breakdown is a rare insight into which NSO Group customers may be more active, and where their victims and targets are located. The countries with the most victims of this campaign are Mexico, with 456 individuals; India, with 100; Bahrain with 82; Morocco, with 69; Pakistan, with 58; Indonesia, with 54; and Israel, with 51, according to a chart titled “Victim Country Count,” that WhatsApp submitted as part of the case.
Read more…
Source: TechCrunch News
Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.
Related:
- Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks
April 11, 2024
Apple sent threat notifications to iPhone users in 92 countries on Wednesday, warning them that may have been targeted by mercenary spyware attacks. The company sent the alerts to individuals in 92 nations at 12pm Pacific Time Wednesday. It did not disclose the attackers’ identities or the countries where users received notifications. “Apple detected that you ...
- Spyware startup Variston is losing staff – some say it’s closing
February 15, 2024
In July 2022, someone sent Google a batch of malicious code that could be used to hack Chrome, Firefox, and PCs running Microsoft Defender. That code was part of an exploitation framework called Heliconia. And at the time, the exploits used to target those applications were zero-days, meaning the software makers were unaware of the bugs, ...
- Hackers uncover new TheTruthSpy stalkerware victims
February 12, 2024
A consumer-grade spyware operation called TheTruthSpy poses an ongoing security and privacy risk to thousands of people whose Android devices are unknowingly compromised with its mobile surveillance apps, not least due to a simple security flaw that its operators never fixed. Now, two hacking groups have independently found the flaw that allows the mass access of ...
- Buying Spying: How the commercial surveillance industry works and what can be done about it
February 6, 2024
Private sector firms have been involved in discovering and selling exploits for many years, but there is a rise in turnkey espionage solutions. Commercial Surveillance Vendors (CSVs) offer pay-to-play tools that bundle an exploit chain designed to get past security measures, along with the spyware and the necessary infrastructure, in order to collect the desired data ...
- A lightweight method to detect potential iOS malware
January 16, 2024
In 2021 and 2022, Kaspersky researchers had the privilege of working on a few Pegasus malware infections on several iPhone devices. The iPhones were Initially given to them by their partners for general security checks before the researchers discovered the infections. Investigating such cases can be complicated, costly, or time consuming due to the nature of ...
- India: Forensic investigation reveals repeated use of Pegasus spyware to target high-profile journalists
December 28, 2023
Amnesty International, in partnership with The Washington Post, has unearthed shocking new details about the continued use of NSO Group’s highly invasive spyware Pegasus to target prominent journalists in India, including one who had previously been a victim of an attack using the same spyware. The Security Lab recovered evidence of a zero-click exploit which was ...