A federal jury in California has ordered Israeli firm NSO Group to pay more than $167 million in punitive damages to Meta Platforms for installing malware on its WhatsApp messaging app six years ago.
Spyware vendor NSO Group must pay about $167.3 million in punitive damages and $440,000 in compensatory damages to WhatsApp after a jury trial to determine the amount NSO should pay. Meta in December 2024 received a judge’s ruling that NSO, with its Pegasus software, hacked and surveilled around 1,4000 WhatsApp users without authorization.
WhatsApp originally filed a in 2019.
In a , WhatsApp said the case “made history as the first victory against illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone.”
“The jury’s decision to force NSO, a notorious foreign spyware merchant, to pay damages is a critical deterrent to this malicious industry against their illegal acts aimed at American companies and the privacy and security of the people we serve,” WhatsApp said.
NSO has argued that its software assists law enforcement and intelligence agencies fighting crime and protecting national security.
Related: US Court Rejects Israeli Firm’s Immunity From Facebook Suit Over Malware
WhatsApp said in the blog—which includes deposition videos of NSO executives—that its engineers six years ago detected the Pegasus spyware used to target its users, including human rights activists, journalists, diplomats and others in civil society.
“Put simply, NSO’s Pegasus works to covertly compromise people’s phones with spyware capable of hoovering up information from any app installed on the device,” WhatsApp said. “Think anything from financial and location information to emails and text messages, or as NSO conceded: ‘every kind of user data on the phone.’ It can even remotely activate the phone’s mic and camera – all without people’s knowledge, let alone authorization.”
WhatsApp said it will seek a court order to prevent NSO from ever targeting it. The Meta company said it has a “long road ahead to collect awarded damages.”
Topics Cyber
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