Stephanie Kirchgasner reports through the Guardian: NSO Group, which makes one of the world's most sophisticated cyberweapons, has been ordered by a US court to hand over the code for Pegasus and other spyware products to WhatsApp as part of an ongoing lawsuit. The ruling, by Judge Phyllis Hamilton, comes as a major blow for Mehta-owned communications app WhatsApp, which has been embroiled in a lawsuit against NSO since 2019, alleging that the Israeli company's spyware was used against 1,400 WhatsApp users over two years. A huge legal victory. -Duration of weeks.
NSO's Pegasus code, as well as the codes of other surveillance products sold by NSO, are considered strictly and highly sought after national secrets. NSO is highly regulated by the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which must review and approve all license sales to foreign governments. In reaching his decision, Hamilton considered NSO's plea to be exempt from all discovery obligations in the case, citing “various U.S. and Israeli restrictions.”
But in the end, she sided with WhatsApp, stating that WhatsApp users were not allowed to participate in the two-week period (April 29, 2018 to May 10, 2020) in which they were allegedly attacked. ordered the company to produce “spyware.'' NSO must do this. It also provides WhatsApp information “on all relevant spyware features.” However, Hamilton ruled on another issue in favor of NSO. The company is not forced to disclose the client's name or information about the server's architecture at this time.
