WhatsApp has sued the Israeli company NSO accusing it of being responsible for targeted attacks on approximately 1,400 of its users: in particular, NSO allegedly developed software (a “spyware”) to exploit a security flaw in WhatsApp and spy on some users. The Bloomberg site writes that the lawsuit covers a period from January 2018 to May 2019; in particular in April and May last NSO allegedly targeted lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, diplomats and other important government officials. The numbers involved in NSO operations belong, WhatsApp always says, to several countries, including Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Mexico. WhatsApp said it had fixed the security problem that left it vulnerable to attacks on May 29th.
NSO is an Israeli company with rather mysterious activities, which is engaged in producing cyber surveillance systems for several governments. Its most famous program, Pegasus, is used by some governments for their counter-terrorism and telecommunications control activities. WhatsApp has asked the court to permanently ban NSO from using its software. NSO denied the allegations and said its “sole objective is to provide technology to government intelligence and law enforcement to help them fight crime and terrorism.”
