{"id":241296,"date":"2025-05-14T10:51:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T10:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/apple-2\/nso-kept-spying-on-whatsapp-users-despite-meta-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T10:51:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T10:51:44","slug":"nso-kept-spying-on-whatsapp-users-despite-meta-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=241296","title":{"rendered":"NSO kept spying on WhatsApp users despite Meta lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n\t<img width=\"1600\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/09\/nso-pegasus.webp?w=1600\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"nso group iphone apple pegasus\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/09\/nso-pegasus.webp?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/09\/nso-pegasus.webp?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/09\/nso-pegasus.webp?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/09\/nso-pegasus.webp?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2025\/05\/07\/iphone-spyware-company-nso-must-reveal-code\/\">Last week<\/a>, Israeli firm <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/guides\/nso\/\">NSO Group<\/a>, best known for its Pegasus spyware targeting iPhones and Android devices, was ordered to pay Meta more than $167M for targeting WhatsApp users.<\/p>\n<p>Now, <em>TechCrunch<\/em> has published an <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/05\/13\/seven-things-we-learned-from-whatsapp-vs-nso-group-spyware-lawsuit\/\">interesting report<\/a> based on the 1,000+ page transcript of the trial.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-1001197\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-aftermath\">The aftermath<\/h2>\n<p>As soon as the verdict was read, Meta celebrated the outcome as \u201can important step forward for privacy and security.\u201d The ruling capped a legal battle that stretched over five years, with the court also ordering NSO to hand over the code for Pegasus and its other spyware tools to WhatsApp.<\/p>\n<p>With such a long and sprawling case, it\u2019s no surprise that the transcript runs over 1,000 pages. Some of its contents, however, might raise a few eyebrows.<\/p>\n<p>One piece of information, however, goes to show the firm\u2019s fearlessness (let\u2019s call it that) when it comes to targeting users with its spyware. As Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Following the spyware attack, WhatsApp filed its lawsuit against NSO Group in November 2019. Despite the active legal challenge, the spyware maker kept targeting the chat app\u2019s users, according to NSO Group\u2019s research and development vice president Tamir Gazneli.<\/p>\n<p>Gazneli said that \u201cErised,\u201d the codename for one of the versions of the WhatsApp zero-click vector, was in use from late-2019 up to May 2020. The other versions were called \u201cEden\u201d and \u201cHeaven,\u201d and the three were collectively known as \u201cHummingbird.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The story is a quick read, but well worth your time if you are into infosec. It goes into how the attack worked and what its relationship with government customers is like.<\/p>\n<p>In its <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/05\/winning-the-fight-against-spyware-merchant-nso\/\">official statement<\/a> about the victory, Meta promised to publish unofficial trial transcripts for \u201cresearchers and journalists studying these threats and working to protect the public.\u201d NSO, on the other hand, vowed to appeal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-disclaimer-container\">\n<p class=\"disclaimer-affiliate\"><em>FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/about\/#affiliate\">More.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- post ad --><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, Israeli firm NSO Group, best known for its Pegasus spyware targeting iPhones and Android devices, was ordered to pay Meta more than $167M for targeting WhatsApp users. Now, TechCrunch has published an interesting report based on the 1,000+ page transcript of the trial. The aftermath As soon as the verdict was read, Meta [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11768],"tags":[13236,11435,86120,48175,11344,19100],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-241296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-2","tag-lawsuit","tag-meta","tag-nso","tag-spying","tag-users","tag-whatsapp"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NSO kept spying on WhatsApp users despite Meta lawsuit - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=241296\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NSO kept spying on WhatsApp users despite Meta lawsuit - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, Israeli firm NSO Group, best known for its Pegasus spyware targeting iPhones and Android devices, was ordered to pay Meta more than $167M for targeting WhatsApp users. Now, TechCrunch has published an interesting report based on the 1,000+ page transcript of the trial. 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