{"id":14481,"date":"2024-12-22T19:29:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-22T18:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/2024\/12\/22\/pegasus-spyware-maker-found-liable-for-attacking-1400-whatsapp-users\/"},"modified":"2024-12-22T21:47:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-22T20:47:20","slug":"pegasus-spyware-maker-found-liable-for-attacking-1400-whatsapp-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/2024\/12\/22\/pegasus-spyware-maker-found-liable-for-attacking-1400-whatsapp-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Pegasus spyware maker found liable for attacking 1,400 WhatsApp users"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The US court has found that NSO Group, the company behind Pegasus spyware, attacked 1,400 users\u2019 devices through WhatsApp. WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against NSO Group in 2019 alleging it used Pegasus to spy on the phones of journalists, activists, and government officials.<br \/>\nFor those who aren\u2019t aware, the Israeli cyber-arms company NSO Group developed Pegasus spyware in 2011. Pegasus can remotely infect phones and steal messages, calls, and personal data. Once installed on a device, it can spy on the user without them knowing, which makes it one of the most dangerous tools for privacy invasion.<br \/>\nUS Court found NSO Group liable for attacking WhatsApp users with Pegasus spyware<br \/>\nThe judge, Phyllis Hamilton, found that NSO Group violated the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and California\u2019s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CDAFA). The judge also found that the company violated WhatsApp\u2019s terms of service. This ruling came after a five-year-long legal battle. The court has yet to determine how much NSO will need to pay in damages.<br \/>\nIn early 2024, Hamilton ordered NSO Group to provide WhatsApp with the source code of its spyware. But in her ruling, she said the company had repeatedly failed to do so, which was a major reason for granting WhatsApp\u2019s request for sanctions against NSO Group. The lawsuit was filed in California, but NSO Group only allowed an Israeli citizen to view its source code in Israel, which the judge described as \u201csimply impracticable.\u201d<br \/>\nWill Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, wrote a post on Threads, \u201cThis ruling is a huge win for privacy. We spent five years presenting our case because we firmly believe that spyware companies could not hide behind immunity or avoid accountability for their unlawful actions. Surveillance companies should be on notice that illegal spying will not be tolerated.\u201d<br \/>\nThe controversy of Pegasus spyware<br \/>\nPegasus spyware is controversial because its creators originally designed it to help governments fight crime and terrorism. But governments around the world have reportedly used it to spy on journalists, opposition leaders, and human rights activists. This misuse has raised big questions about the ethics of technology and the danger to privacy. Before 2019 it was spread through messages with harmful links. But now it\u2019s more powerful using \u201czero-day\u201d vulnerabilities in phones.<br \/>\nThe post Pegasus spyware maker found liable for attacking 1,400 WhatsApp users appeared first on Android Headlines.&#013;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/hack-ah-3-Large-jpeg-1.jpg\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">&#013;<br \/>\nSource: ndroidheadlines.com&#013;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US court has found that NSO Group, the company behind Pegasus spyware, attacked 1,400 users\u2019 devices through WhatsApp. WhatsApp [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":14482,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bez-kategorii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14483,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14481\/revisions\/14483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plus.maciejpiasecki.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}