WhatsApp accuses Israeli spyware NSO Group Pegasus of retargeting users | Today’s news
Meta has asked a US federal court to hold Israeli spyware company NSO Group in contempt, alleging that the company enabled its Pegasus tracking technology to be deployed against WhatsApp users through a spear-phishing campaign that it says is in direct violation of a court order issued last year specifically banning such activity.
WhatsApp claims NSO Group violated court order by linking its Pegasus technology to malicious links sent to users
The contempt motion, announced Monday via the Meta blog, follows the discovery of malicious links on the messaging platform that the company attributes to NSO Group’s technology.
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Shared links by Israeli spyware firm NSO were designed to redirect users to websites operating outside of WhatsApp, according to a company spokesperson, in what security researchers describe as a spear-phishing attack – a targeted form of digital fraud aimed at specific individuals rather than the general population.
WhatsApp said it stopped the campaign before any devices were compromised. The company said it became aware of the attempts after potential targets independently reported suspicious activity to the platform.
Meta did not identify which of NSO Group’s government clients it said authorized the campaign.
The NSO Pegasus phishing campaign targeted fewer than 10 WhatsApp users, mostly in Jordan and Lebanon
The operation was limited in scope. Fewer than 10 WhatsApp users were targeted, most of them based in Jordan and Lebanon, a Meta representative confirmed.
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Among the domain links shared by the company as evidence of the campaign was one created to mimic France 24, the Paris-based state-run international news and television network.
Meta declined to identify the individuals targeted or provide further details about the accounts involved.
NSO already faces a federal injunction preventing it from targeting WhatsApp
The contempt charge is in the context of an existing federal court order that specifically prohibits the NSO Group from accessing WhatsApp’s systems or targeting its users.
The injunction follows a landmark verdict last May in which a federal jury ordered NSO to pay Meta $167 million in damages to settle a six-year legal dispute after NSO used its Pegasus software to compromise approximately 1,400 WhatsApp accounts belonging to journalists, human rights defenders and government officials in 20 countries in a 2019 campaign.
The damage was subsequently reduced to $4 million.
NSO Group is currently appealing the court order.
NSO Group defends Pegasus as a tool for governments to fight crime and terrorism, but the investigation says otherwise
The NSO Group has long maintained that it sells its surveillance capabilities exclusively to vetted government clients to fight serious crime and terrorism, a position the company has consistently maintained in numerous legal and regulatory challenges.
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This defense has been repeatedly contradicted by independent investigations that have documented the deployment of Pegasus by governments in Mexico and throughout the Middle East to monitor journalists, political dissidents and human rights workers.
NSO Group’s Pegasus software has also been linked to what researchers call zero-click attacks, a form of compromise that requires no action from the target.
Biden Administration Places NSO Group on US Entity List in 2021 for Acting Against National Security Interests
The Biden administration sanctioned NSO Group in 2021, listing the company as a US government entity and barring US firms from supplying it with technology or services.
US officials said the decision was necessary to combat a largely unregulated global market for commercial spyware, which foreign governments have used to track critics and suppress political opposition.
The designation was widely seen at the time as a sharp break, given the close security relationship between the US and Israel.
NSO Group tried unsuccessfully to reverse this designation.
Meta says NSO must remain on the US entity list
Meta claimed in its blog post that the newly identified activity was the reason for maintaining the current restrictions on the NSO group. “As a rogue company on the US government entity list continues to defy US courts, existing restrictions must remain firmly in place,” the company said.
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“To mitigate them would undermine America’s national security and endanger American companies and the billions of people around the world who depend on secure communications.”
WhatsApp also released threat indicators related to the campaign so that other platforms could assess whether their own users were targeted by the same operation.
American investors, including Hollywood producer Robert Simonds, acquired a controlling stake in the NSO Group late last year
The contempt proceedings come after a significant change in the ownership structure of the NSO group. A group of American investors, including Hollywood producer Robert Simonds, bought a controlling stake in the Israeli company late last year, a development that has attracted considerable attention given NSO’s longstanding conflicts with American regulators, courts and technology companies.
