Category Archives: NSO Group

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

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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 […]

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

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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 […]

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

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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 […]

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

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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 […]

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Top Mobile Security Stories of 2019

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Cybercrime increasingly went mobile in 2019, with everything from Apple iPhone jailbreaks and rogue Android apps to 5G and mobile-first phishing dominating the news coverage. Here are Threatpost’s Top 10 mobile security stories of 2019. Continue reading Top Mobile Security Stories of 2019→

NSO employees take Facebook to Israeli court to unblock accounts

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The plot has thickened in a legal battle between social media giant Facebook and NSO Group, a surveillance software vendor accused of abetting human rights abuses. After Facebook sued the Israeli company last month for allegedly violating a federal anti-hacking law, NSO Group employees have filed their own motion in Israeli court, claiming that Facebook unfairly blocked their personal accounts in retaliation. The petition from several NSO Group employees asks the court to order Facebook to lift a block on their Facebook and Instagram accounts, arguing that Facebook cut access to their accounts without notice and in violation of the company’s policies. The motion is a smaller-scale response to Facebook’s landmark lawsuit against NSO Group. The suit, brought in a federal court in California, alleges that the vendor violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act when NSO’s custom malware was deployed on some 1,400 mobile devices with WhatsApp installed during […]

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WhatsApp’s NSO Group Lawsuit, This Week in Data Breaches, Office 365 Voicemail Phishing

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You’re listening to the Shared Security Podcast, exploring the trust you put in people, apps, and technology…with your host, Tom Eston. In episode 93 for November 4th 2019: The WhatsApp NSO group lawsuit plus details on Facebook’s pre… Continue reading WhatsApp’s NSO Group Lawsuit, This Week in Data Breaches, Office 365 Voicemail Phishing→

WhatsApp sues spyware maker for allegedly hacking phones worldwide

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WhatsApp has publicly attributed the attack on its users in May 2019 to the Israeli spyware makers, NSO Group. Continue reading WhatsApp sues spyware maker for allegedly hacking phones worldwide→

WhatsApp Spyware Attack: Uncovering NSO Group Activity

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John Scott-Railton with Citizen Lab, who helped WhatsApp investigate the NSO Group over the alleged WhatsApp hack, said the subsequent lawsuit is a “certified big deal.” Continue reading WhatsApp Spyware Attack: Uncovering NSO Group Activity→