On May 6, WhatsApp scored a major victory against NSO Group when a jury ordered the infamous spyware maker to pay more than $167 million in damages to the Meta-owned company.
The ruling concluded a legal battle spanning more than five years, which started in October 2019 when WhatsApp accused NSO Group of hacking more than 1,400 of its users by taking advantage of a vulnerability in the chat app’s audio-calling functionality. Even before the trial began, the case had unearthed several revelations, including that NSO Group had cut off 10 of its government customers for abusing its Pegasus spyware, the locations of 1,223 of the victims of the spyware campaign, and the names of three of the spyware maker’s customers: Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan.
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 ...