WhatsApp defeats Pegasus spyware manufacturer NSO in a significant court battle

WhatsApp defeats Pegasus spyware in a significant court battle A significant judicial victory for WhatsApp against NSO Group regarding Pegasus spyware is a significant step in making spyware businesses answerable for illegally spying on officials, journalists, and activists.

NSO
Late on Friday (December 20), WhatsApp won a significant court battle against NSO Group Technologies, the Israeli firm that created the contentious Pegasus spyware. The decision is a significant turning point in a well-known lawsuit that Meta's messaging service brought in the US in 2019.

According to the lawsuit, during a two-week period in May 2019, NSO Group utilized Pegasus to infect and monitor the phones of 1,400 people, including government officials, journalists, and human rights advocates. The infamously intrusive malware was used to use WhatsApp to obtain private information from targets.

A judge decides in favor of WhatsApp.

In a summary ruling in favor of WhatsApp, US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton concluded that NSO Group had breached WhatsApp's terms of service in addition to state and federal hacking statutes. In a major setback for the spyware manufacturer, the court also found that NSO Group had violated the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Hamilton stated in her decision that NSO Group had impeded the legal proceedings by neglecting to give WhatsApp the source code for the spyware, even though they were required to do so by the beginning of 2024. Rather, the corporation restricted its evaluation to Israeli citizens and made the code available exclusively in Israel, which the judge deemed "simply impracticable."

In March 2025, NSO Group will go to trial by jury to find out how much it owes WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in the world.