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:
- FBI was using advanced hacking software despite White House ban
August 2, 2023
Since November of 2021, US-based companies have been barred from doing business with the NSO Group, an Israeli research firm behind some of the most advanced hacking tools the tech world has ever seen. Come to find out, a New York Times investigation from this past April revealed that a US government agency was actively using ...
- Spyhide stalkerware is spying on tens of thousands of phones
July 24, 2023
A phone surveillance app called Spyhide is stealthily collecting private phone data from tens of thousands of Android devices around the world, new data shows. Spyhide is a widely used stalkerware (or spouseware) app that is planted on a victim’s phone, often by someone with knowledge of their passcode. The app is designed to stay hidden ...
- Intellexa and Cytrox are latest spyware firms to face U.S. wrath
July 19, 2023
The Biden administration struck its latest blow against foreign spyware makers on Tuesday, placing two Europe-based companies on its list that restricts U.S. companies’ business dealings with them. Greece-based Intellexa and the Hungarian company Cytrox are now on the Commerce Department’s “Entity List,” alongside related entities in Ireland and Macedonia, respectively. The organizations join Israeli spyware makers ...
- The growth of commercial spyware based intelligence providers without legal or ethical supervision
July 6, 2023
Attackers have long used commercial products developed by legitimate companies to compromise targeted devices. These products are known as commercial spyware. Commercial spyware operations mainly target mobile platforms with zero- or one-click zero-day exploits to deliver spyware. This threat initially came to light with the leaks of HackingTeam back in 2015, but gained new notoriety with public reporting ...
- EU set to approve the use of spyware to uncover confidential journalist sources
June 23, 2023
The European Union is set to approve new laws that would let governments spy on journalists in the name of national security. The legislation would expand legal ‘loopholes’ that let governments install spyware on journalist’s phones and computers, including British reporters working in the EU, press freedom campaigners warned. The draft legislation, that has now been ...
- Dissecting TriangleDB, a Triangulation spyware implant
June 21, 2023
Over the years, there have been multiple cases when iOS devices were infected with targeted spyware such as Pegasus, Predator, Reign and others. Often, the process of infecting a device involves launching a chain of different exploits. Due to this granularity, discovering one exploit in the chain often does not result in retrieving the rest ...