WhatsApp scores historic victory against NSO Group in long-running spyware hacking case


A U.S. judge has ruled that Israeli spyware maker NSO Group breached hacking laws by using WhatsApp to infect devices with its Pegasus spyware.

In a historic ruling on Friday, a Northern California federal judge held NSO Group liable for targeting the devices of 1,400 WhatsApp users, violating state and federal hacking laws as well as WhatsApp’s terms of service, which prohibit the use of the messaging platform for malicious purposes. The ruling comes five years after Meta-owned WhatsApp sued NSO Group, alleging the spyware outfit had exploited an audio-calling vulnerability in the messaging platform to install its Pegasus spyware on unsuspecting users’ devices.

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Source: TechCrunch


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