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:
- New PhoneSpy Android Spyware Poses Pegasus-Like Threat
November 10, 2021
Researchers discovered new Android spyware that provides similar capabilities to NSO Group’s Pegasus controversial software. Called PhoneSpy, the mobile surveillance-ware has been spotted activity targeting South Koreans without their knowledge. PhoneSpy disguises itself as a legitimate application and gives attackers complete access to data stored on a mobile device and grants full control over the targeted ...
- 6 Palestinian rights activists hacked by NSO spyware, report says
November 8, 2021
Security researchers disclosed Monday that spyware from the notorious Israeli hacker-for-hire company NSO Group was detected on the cellphones of six Palestinian human rights activists, half affiliated with groups that Israel’s defense minister controversially claimed were involved in terrorism. The revelation marks the first known instance of Palestinian activists being targeted by the military-grade Pegasus spyware. ...
- US sanctions NSO Group, Israeli spyware company at centre of Pegasus Papers
November 3, 2021
The US is sanctioning an Israeli spyware company that it accused of supplying technology to foreign governments “to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers”. NSO Group had been accused of assisting despotic regimes in targeting journalists, political dissidents, and human rights activists in reports earlier this year. The company responded at the ...
- US schools gave kids laptops during the pandemic. Then they spied on them
October 11, 2021
When the pandemic started last year, countless forms of inequality were exposed – including the millions of American families who don’t have access to laptops or broadband internet. After some delays, schools across the country jumped into action and distributed technology to allow students to learn remotely. The catch? They ended up spying on students. ...
- Fake Amnesty International Pegasus scanner used to infect Windows
September 30, 2021
Threat actors are trying to capitalize on the recent revelations on Pegasus spyware from Amnesty International to drop a less-known remote access tool called Sarwent. The malware looks and acts the part of a legitimate antivirus solution specially created to scan the system for traces of Pegasus traces and to remove them. Sarwent-based attacks have been running ...
- Analyzing The ForcedEntry Zero-Click iPhone Exploit Used By Pegasus
September 15, 2021
Citizen Lab has released a report detailing sophisticated iPhone exploits being used against nine Bahraini activists. The activists were reportedly hacked with the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware using two zero-click iMessage exploits: Kismet, which was identified in 2020; and ForcedEntry, a new vulnerability that was identified in 2021. Zero-click attacks are labeled as sophisticated threats ...