Category Archives: NSO Group

Former Ghana government officials sentenced to jail for doing business with NSO Group

Posted on by

Three former government officials in Ghana have been sentenced to jail for purchasing spyware products from Israeli software surveillance company NSO Group. The country’s former national security coordinator, Salifu Osman, and director-general of the country’s telecommunications authority, William Tetteh Tevie, were sentenced to five years in prison, according to Ghana Business News and other local news outlets. A former board chairman of the telecommunications authority, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, was sentenced to six years because he allegedly made $200,000 from the deal, according to Graphic Online. The case, which has been in the country’s high court since 2017, hinged on the argument that officials had caused significant financial loss in the country due to their $4 million purchase of NSO Group’s signature Pegasus spyware. The National Communications Authority (NCA) allegedly bought the surveillance product through a reseller in order to track suspected terrorism, according to Graphic Online, which attended the court session Tuesday. It […]

The post Former Ghana government officials sentenced to jail for doing business with NSO Group appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Former Ghana government officials sentenced to jail for doing business with NSO Group→

NSO Group partly disputes claim about use of U.S.-based servers in WhatsApp spy campaign

Posted on by

Israeli surveillance software company NSO Group is back in court disputing WhatsApp’s claims that it used U.S.-based infrastructure to launch spyware against thousands of WhatsApp users last year. In court documents filed Thursday, NSO Group rejected Facebook-owned WhatsApp’s allegations that NSO Group used servers from a Los Angeles-based hosting provider, QuadraNet, over 700 times to target WhatsApp users. “Plaintiffs’ new claims about QuadraNet are false: NSO did not contract with QuadraNet to use its California servers,” the filing reads. NSO Group claimed in the filings that even if its spyware, Pegasus, did use QuadraNet servers, it was third-party activity. The company sells its software around the globe to intelligence and law enforcement agencies. “If Pegasus messages did pass through QuadraNet servers, they would have been sent by NSO’s customers, not NSO,” the filing states. “We repeat: NSO Group does not operate the Pegasus technology for its clients,” the spokesperson added. NSO Group CEO Shalev Hulio said […]

The post NSO Group partly disputes claim about use of U.S.-based servers in WhatsApp spy campaign appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading NSO Group partly disputes claim about use of U.S.-based servers in WhatsApp spy campaign→

Facebook claims NSO Group’s lawyers have conflict of interest in WhatsApp case

Posted on by

In the ongoing legal battle between Facebook and software surveillance company NSO Group, the social media giant is trying to get NSO Group’s legal counsel dismissed because of an alleged conflict of interest. In a court filing made public this week, Facebook asked a federal judge to disqualify law firm King & Spalding from representing NSO Group because the firm previously represented Facebook-owned WhatsApp in a different sealed case that is “substantially related” to the NSO Group one. King & Spalding, an Atlanta-based firm with a range of big corporate clients, has denied there is a conflict of interest, according to the filing. It is the latest twist in a legal tussle that began in October, when Facebook sued NSO Group, alleging that the Israeli company violated a federal anti-hacking law when its malware was used to infect some 1,400 mobile devices, including those of human rights advocates. NSO Group denies the […]

The post Facebook claims NSO Group’s lawyers have conflict of interest in WhatsApp case appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Facebook claims NSO Group’s lawyers have conflict of interest in WhatsApp case→

Facebook: NSO Group used U.S.-based servers in operations against WhatsApp users

Posted on by

Lawyers for WhatsApp’s parent company alleged in documents filed Thursday that NSO Group, the Israeli software surveillance firm accused of spying on over a thousand WhatsApp users, has used U.S.-based servers to launch its attacks. In court documents, Facebook-owned WhatsApp claims NSO Group used a server run by Los Angeles-based hosting provider QuadraNet “more than 700 times during the attack to direct NSO’s malware to WhatsApp user devices in April and May 2019.” Additionally, NSO Group used a remote server hosted by Amazon to target WhatsApp users, WhatsApp software engineer Claudiu Gheorghe said in the filing. The filing is a blow to NSO Group’s claims that its signature product, Pegasus, isn’t capable of running operations in the United States. “That invasion of WhatsApp’s servers and users’ devices constitutes unlawful computer hacking at the heart of the [Computer Fraud and Abuse Act]’s unauthorized-access offense,” WhatsApp claims in the filing. The filing is […]

The post Facebook: NSO Group used U.S.-based servers in operations against WhatsApp users appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Facebook: NSO Group used U.S.-based servers in operations against WhatsApp users→

Facebook wanted to purchase NSO Group spyware to surveil users, court documents allege

Posted on by

Two Facebook representatives approached NSO Group in 2017 asking to purchase rights to use its surveillance software to monitor its users, according to court documents filed this week by the Israeli-owned surveillance software company in an ongoing lawsuit with Facebook-owned WhatsApp. The Facebook representatives specifically told NSO Group they wanted to monitor users on Apple devices, NSO Group CEO Shalev Hulio said, according to court documents obtained by CyberScoop. NSO Group and WhatsApp are currently battling it out in court after Facebook sued NSO Group for allegedly targeting thousands of WhatsApp users with its spyware. At the time, Facebook was working to use a VPN product, Onavo Protect, to track users’ web traffic. According to Shalev, Facebook was not satisfied with the results for users on Apple devices and wanted to use NSO Group’s signature Pegasus spyware as a way to monitor Facebook users better. “The Facebook representatives stated that Facebook […]

The post Facebook wanted to purchase NSO Group spyware to surveil users, court documents allege appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Facebook wanted to purchase NSO Group spyware to surveil users, court documents allege→

NSO Group works to explain no-show in court for WhatsApp suit, plots defense

Posted on by

The Israeli surveillance software firm accused of exploiting WhatsApp to run surveillance operations against users has asked the court for a 120-day extension to reply to WhatsApp’s lawsuit. NSO Group alleges that Facebook, WhatsApp’s parent company, lied in a recent procedural filing about whether it had properly served NSO Group under The Hague Convention, according to court documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California obtained by CyberScoop. “Facebook lied to the court in its February 27 application for default, saying that service was complete,” NSO Group said in a statement shared with CyberScoop. “In fact, Facebook and its lawyers had been told two days earlier (February 25) by the Government of Israel that service under the Hague Convention was not complete — a fact Facebook concealed from the court.” It’s the latest logistics squabble in the case, which alleges NSO Group’s custom malware was […]

The post NSO Group works to explain no-show in court for WhatsApp suit, plots defense appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading NSO Group works to explain no-show in court for WhatsApp suit, plots defense→

Facebook must unblock NSO Group employee’s account, Israeli court rules

Posted on by

An Israeli court has ordered Facebook to unblock the account of an employee of NSO Group after a complaint from the software surveillance vendor, according to officials at both companies. It is the latest twist in a broader, high-stakes legal battle between Facebook and NSO Group, an Israeli company that sells hacking tools to governments. In a lawsuit last year, Facebook accused NSO Group, through its custom malware, of being complicit in a hack last year of 1,400 mobile devices running WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging platform. NSO Group has denied the allegations. NSO Group employees had filed a petition in November asking an Israeli court to lift a block that Facebook had placed on their accounts. The NSO Group personnel accused Facebook of retaliating against them after Facebook‘s suit, which alleged that NSO Group had violated U.S. anti-hacking laws. Facebook said disabling certain NSO Group accounts was warranted for security reasons. A Facebook spokesperson said Tuesday the company […]

The post Facebook must unblock NSO Group employee’s account, Israeli court rules appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Facebook must unblock NSO Group employee’s account, Israeli court rules→

Hack of Jeff Bezos’ phone likely happened through Saudi crown prince, analysts tell U.N.

Posted on by

With “medium to high confidence,” forensic investigators have concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was directly involved in hacking into Jeff Bezos’ phone in 2018, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday. The hack, which allowed “intrusive surveillance” of Bezos according to the U.N., came after bin Salman and the Amazon founder met at a dinner in April 2018 while the crown prince was touring the U.S. The Guardian first reported the alleged surveillance of Bezos on Tuesday. Following an exchange of WhatsApp messages, bin Salman sent a malicious and encrypted file to Bezos, which led to the exfiltration of large amounts of data, according to the report. The interaction took place months before the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, which American intelligence has assessed to have been carried out under orders from bin Salman. Bezos also owns the Washington Post. Soon after meeting bin Salman — also known as MBS […]

The post Hack of Jeff Bezos’ phone likely happened through Saudi crown prince, analysts tell U.N. appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Hack of Jeff Bezos’ phone likely happened through Saudi crown prince, analysts tell U.N.→

Amnesty suit asking Israel to revoke NSO Group’s license heads to court

Posted on by

Amnesty International is urging an Israeli court to restrict the business of NSO Group, a spyware vendor accused of helping repressive governments spy on dissidents and journalists. The U.K.-based human rights group on Tuesday published a statement encouraging Tel Aviv’s District Court to revoke NSO Group’s export license, a move that would effectively prohibit the company from providing foreign clients with its technology. NSO Group sells Pegasus, hacking software which allows clients to monitor targets’ emails, text messages, collect passwords and gather other valuable personal information. Government critics and journalists in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been targeted with Pegasus, Amnesty said. “The best way to stop NSO’s powerful spyware products reaching repressive governments is to revoke the company’s export license, and that is exactly what this legal case seeks to do,” Danna Ingleton, deputy director of Amnesty Tech, said in a statement Tuesday. NSO Group, founded […]

The post Amnesty suit asking Israel to revoke NSO Group’s license heads to court appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Amnesty suit asking Israel to revoke NSO Group’s license heads to court→