US court bans NSO Group from installing spyware on WhatsApp
A US district court prohibits the spyware company NSO Group from spying on WhatsApp and simultaneously reduces the damages to be paid.
(Image: T. Schneider/Shutterstock.com)
A court in the USA has ordered the tech company NSO Group Technologies to stop attacking the messaging service WhatsApp. According to the manufacturer of the surveillance software “Pegasus,” this decision endangers the company's business operations.
In the ruling announced last Friday, US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users. The case was heard in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland (Case No. 19-CV-07123). At the same time, the court reduced the damages awarded to WhatsApp's parent company Meta from 167 to “only” four million US dollars. Judge Hamilton justified the decision by stating that the NSO Group's conduct was not to be classified as “particularly egregious” and therefore did not warrant such high damages.
Despite the reduction in the penalty payment, WhatsApp officials expressed their satisfaction with the judge's ruling. “Today's ruling prohibits the spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again,” said WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart in a statement. “We welcome this decision, which comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for surveilling members of civil society.”
Long-standing legal dispute
The legal dispute has been before the courts for many years. In a lawsuit filed in October 2019, WhatsApp's parent company Meta accused NSO Group of violating various laws in the installation of the Pegasus spyware. NSO Group allegedly accessed WhatsApp servers unlawfully in early 2019, thereby enabling the surveillance of 1,400 individuals, including journalists and human rights activists.
In 2020, a judge rejected NSO Group's request for a form of immunity. The company appealed this decision. However, an appeals court confirmed the decision in 2021. In early 2023, judges of the US Supreme Court finally rejected NSO Group's appeal. In it, the company had argued that it was immune from a lawsuit because it had acted as an agent for unidentified foreign governments when installing the spyware.
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The case finally landed before the US District Court for the Northern District of California. At the end of February 2024, the responsible judge decided that NSO Group must hand over the source code of the Pegasus spyware. Shortly before the end of the year, the court finally granted WhatsApp's request. In early May, a jury then awarded Meta more than 167 million US dollars in damages. NSO Group appealed against this and demanded a retrial or a reduction of the damages. At least the reduction has been achieved by NSO Group.
Challenge for NSO Group
However, the company, which was recently acquired by a US investment group, is unlikely to be satisfied. Rather, the injunction not to target WhatsApp again is likely to pose a challenge for NSO Group, according to the news agency Reuters. In the proceedings, the company had argued that the requested injunction would “endanger the entire NSO company” and “push NSO out of business” because “Pegasus is NSO's flagship product,” the ruling states.
NSO Group argues that the Pegasus software assists law enforcement agencies and intelligence services in combating crime and protecting national security, helping to apprehend terrorists, pedophiles, and serious criminals. However, it is also a fact that numerous governments worldwide have used the Pegasus spyware for political surveillance in recent years, for example in Mexico to spy on journalists, human rights activists, and anti-corruption campaigners.
The company announced that it would review the US court's decision and “decide on the next steps accordingly.”
(akn)
