A US judge ruled in favor of meta platform WhatsApp on Friday in a lawsuit that accused Israel’s NSO Group of exploiting a bug in the messaging app to install spying software that allowed unauthorized surveillance. .
US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, approved a motion by WhatsApp and found NSO liable for hacking and breach of contract.
The case will now proceed to trial only on the issue of damages, Hamilton said. NSO Group did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart said the decision is a victory for privacy.
“We spent five years presenting our case because we firmly believe that spyware companies cannot hide behind immunity or avoid accountability for their unlawful actions,” Cathcart said in a social media post.
“Surveillance companies should be mindful that illegal spying will not be tolerated.”
Cyber security experts welcomed the decision.
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Canadian internet watchdog Citizen Lab – which first brought NSO’s Pegasus spyware to light in 2016 – called the verdict a landmark decision with “huge implications for the spyware industry.”
“The entire industry hides behind the claim that whatever their customers do with their hacking tools is not their responsibility,” he said in an instant message. “Today’s decision makes it clear that NSO Group is indeed responsible for breaking numerous laws.”
WhatsApp sued NSO in 2019 seeking an injunction and damages, accusing it of accessing WhatsApp servers without permission six months earlier to install Pegasus software on victims’ mobile devices. The lawsuit alleged that the intrusion allowed surveillance of 1,400 people, including journalists, human rights activists and dissidents.
NSO had argued that Pegasus helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security and its technology is aimed at helping capture terrorists, pedophiles and hardened criminals.
NSO appealed a trial judge’s 2020 refusal to grant him “conduct-based immunity”, a common law doctrine that protects foreign officials acting in their official capacity.
In upholding that ruling in 2021, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called it an “easy case” because NSO’s mere licensing of Pegasus and offer of technical support protected it under a federal law called the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Was not saved from liability. , which took priority over the common law.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year rejected NSO’s appeal of a lower court ruling, allowing the lawsuit to proceed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
