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| Cyber | |
| Meta Wins Lawsuit [$168M] Against Spyware Vendor NSO Group | |
| 2025-05-16 | |
| [DarkReading] The spyware company must pay the tech giant $168 million in punitive and compensatory damages after a 2019 attack targeting 1,400 devices. In a lawsuit spanning more than five years, Meta has finally come out the victor, winning nearly $168 million in damages yesterday from NSO Group, an Israeli cyber-intelligence company. The verdict is something of a milestone, as this may be one of the few times, if not the first, that a spyware vendor is being held accountable for its actions in court. "Today, the jury's decision to force NSO, a notorious foreign spyware merchant, to pay damages is a critical deterrent to this malicious industry against their illegal acts aimed at American companies and the privacy and security of the people we serve," said Meta, which owns WhatsApp, in a statement. A LONG WIN IN THE MAKING In May 2019, the Israeli firm used WhatsApp servers to distribute Pegasus spyware to roughly 1,400 cellular devices, some of which belonged to journalists and activists, through a zero-day vulnerability found in the messaging service's systems.
Related: Meta 05/11/2025 Google to pay Texas $1.4B to settle claims of unauthorized tracking, collecting of private data Meta 05/08/2025 Meta blocks Muslim news page in India after govt request Meta 05/06/2025 ISIS suspect arrested in New Orleans Bourbon Street terror attack that killed 14 Related: Pegasus spyware 12/23/2024 US judge finds Israeli spyware firm NSO liable for hacking in WhatsApp lawsuit Pegasus spyware 04/25/2023 Newly unearthed iPhone spyware tool sold to governments for targeted surveillance Pegasus spyware 03/24/2022 From Ukrainian Perspective: Russian invasion of Ukraine, March 24th, 2022 | |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 Social media giant hit with scathing ad campaign amid anger over AI chatbots sexually exploiting kids |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-05-16 08:48 |