Latest news with #GilLainer
Epoch Times
07-05-2025
- Business
- Epoch Times
Jury Awards Meta $168 Million in WhatsApp Spyware Case
A California jury awarded Meta nearly $168 million in compensation on May 6 in a privacy case against Israeli spyware company NSO Group. In October 2019, WhatsApp and Facebook, both of which operate under Meta, filed a In December 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California On May 6, a jury The jury agreed that WhatsApp has proven by 'clear and convincing evidence that NSO engaged in malice, oppression, or fraud in violating the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.' The WhatsApp complaint was focused on NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, which was developed 'to be remotely installed and enable the remote access and control of information—including calls, messages, and location—on mobile devices using the Android, iOS, and BlackBerry operating systems,' the lawsuit said. Related Stories 4/30/2025 5/2/2025 'Pegasus was designed, in part, to intercept communications sent to and from a device, including communications over iMessage, Skype, Telegram, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and others,' it said. WhatsApp alleged that NSO implanted Pegasus on WhatsApp users' phones and relayed data from compromised phones to NSO as well as NSO's customers. In an April 2020 court NSO said WhatsApp conflated NSO's actions with those of NSO's customers, such as sovereign governments. The group's business model 'consists of selling NSO's Pegasus technology to governments and providing basic technical support for them,' the filing said. 'If anyone installed Pegasus on any alleged 'Target Devices,' it was not Defendants [NSO]. It would have been an agency of a sovereign government,' it said. NSO said it never targeted anyone and contractually prohibits customers from using Pegasus to target individuals who are not suspected criminals or terrorists. 'If a government ever misused NSO's Pegasus technology to monitor WhatsApp users other than criminals or terrorists, Defendants have no knowledge of that misuse, which would be a violation of that government's contract with NSO,' the Israeli company said. Protecting Privacy Meta welcomed the court decision, saying in a May 6 'Today's verdict in WhatsApp's case is an important step forward for privacy and security as the first victory against the development and use of illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone,' the company said. The jury's decision to impose fines against NSO 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,' it said. Responding to the court decision, Gil Lainer, VP for global communications at NSO Group, told The Epoch Times that the company's technology has played 'a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism' and has been used in security operations that have saved American lives. This perspective 'was excluded from the jury's consideration in this case,' said Lainer. 'We will carefully examine the verdict's details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal,' he said. 'NSO remains fully committed to its mission to develop technologies that protect public safety, while continuously strengthening our industry-leading compliance framework and ensuring our technology is deployed solely for their legitimate, authorized purposes by legitimate sovereign governments.' Digital rights advocacy group Access Now supported the court decision in a May 6 In December 2020, Access Now and its partners submitted an amicus brief in the case, detailing victims of NSO's alleged hacking of WhatsApp. 'This verdict sends a clear message to spyware companies that targeting people through U.S.-based platforms will come with a high price,' said Michael De Dora, U.S. policy and advocacy manager at the organization. 'It underscores the importance of U.S. institutions protecting the digital infrastructure and individuals that rely on it from unlawful surveillance.' In November 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce 'These entities developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers,' the department said.
Scroll.in
07-05-2025
- Business
- Scroll.in
US jury orders makers of Pegasus spyware to pay WhatsApp $168 million in damages
A United States jury on Tuesday ordered Israeli spyware firm NSO Group to pay WhatsApp $167.3 million, or over Rs 1,417 crore, in punitive damages in a 2019 cyber espionage case, AFP reported. The jury also ordered the NSO group to pay $444,719, or over Rs 37 lakh, as compensatory damages. In late 2019, WhatsApp, owned by United States-based technology company Meta, sued the company in a Northern California federal court for allegedly installing Pegasus spyware on users' phones including those of journalists and activists via the messaging app. The messaging platform has alleged that the NSO Group's spyware had been used against 1,400 users of the application over a two-week period in April and May 2019. In December, a US judge had ruled in the social media company's favour, holding that the NSO Group illegally used a flaw in WhatsApp to install spyware on users' phones. The case then proceeded on the question of damages. Meta said on Tuesday that the verdict was an important step forward for privacy and security. It described it ' as the first victory against the development and use of illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone'. NSO's vice president for global communication, Gil Lainer, said they will 'carefully examine the verdict's details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal,' AFP reported. He added that they 'firmly believe that our technology plays a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism and is deployed responsibly by authorized government agencies'. When added to an electronic device, the Pegasus software can generally gain access to phone calls, emails, location information, encrypted messages and photographs without the user's knowledge. The spyware is licensed to governments around the world by the NSO Group. The cyber intelligence company says it sells the Pegasus software only to 'vetted governments' with good human rights records and that it is intended to target criminals. However, in July 2021, an investigation by a group of 17 media organisations and human rights group Amnesty International showed that Pegasus spyware was being used for the unauthorised surveillance of journalists, activists and politicians across the world, including in India. In India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and Prahlad Singh Patel, industrialist Anil Ambani and former Central Bureau of Investigation Director Alok Verma were among the potential targets, The Wire had reported. The Indian government had denied these allegations. Vaishnaw, the Union information technology minister, told Parliament in July 2021 that illegal surveillance was not possible in India. Following the reports, the Supreme Court appointed an expert committee to look into the allegations. In August 2022, the court said that some malware was found on five of the 29 phones that the panel examined. However, it was not clear whether the malware was Pegasus. On April 29, the Supreme Court held there was nothing wrong with India possessing spyware for national security purposes, but expressed concern about its alleged misuse against private individuals. The case will be heard next on July 30. The United States government blacklisted the NSO Group in November 2021 after it determined that the company had acted 'contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US'.
Hans India
07-05-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Meta Wins $167M Verdict Against NSO Group Over WhatsApp Spyware Attacks
Meta has scored a major legal victory in its long-running battle with Israeli spyware developer NSO Group. A federal jury in California has ordered NSO to pay $167.25 million in damages after determining the company was liable for hacking more than 1,400 WhatsApp users using its controversial Pegasus spyware. The ruling follows a lawsuit Meta filed in 2019 after researchers at Citizen Lab uncovered a WhatsApp vulnerability exploited by NSO's Pegasus software. The spyware was able to infiltrate devices simply through a missed call, enabling attackers to access microphones, cameras, messages, emails, and location data. The breach affected journalists, diplomats, activists, and other high-risk users. The jury also awarded Meta $444,719 in compensatory damages. In a public statement, Meta said, 'Today's verdict in WhatsApp's case is an important step forward for privacy and security as the first victory against the development and use of illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone.' The company added, 'The jury's decision to force NSO, a notorious foreign spyware merchant, to pay damages is a critical deterrent to this malicious industry.' Meta now plans to pursue a permanent court injunction preventing NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users in the future. The company has also released unofficial transcripts from the trial depositions and announced it will donate to digital rights groups focused on combating spyware. In response, NSO Group spokesperson Gil Lainer stated the company 'will carefully examine the verdict's details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal.'
Hindustan Times
07-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Meta wins $167 million in damages from NSO group over Pegasus spyware
A US jury has ordered NSO Group, the company behind the notorious Pegasus spyware, to pay more than $167 million in punitive damages to Meta for deploying malware via WhatsApp. The decision marks a significant legal victory for Meta following years of courtroom battles. A US judge previously found that NSO had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.(Pixabay/Representative) Meta first sued NSO Group in 2019, alleging that the Israeli firm used its Pegasus spyware to target over 1,400 individuals across 20 countries—including journalists, human rights activists, and political dissidents. According to Meta, the malware was delivered through WhatsApp video calls, even if those calls went unanswered. A US judge previously found that NSO had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, setting the stage for the jury trial to determine financial damages. On Tuesday, the jury awarded $444,719 in compensatory damages and $167,254,000 in punitive damages to Meta. Meta calls ruling a 'critical deterrent' Carl Woog, WhatsApp's VP of Global Communications, welcomed the verdict, calling it '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.' Meta has also said it plans to seek a court injunction to prevent NSO from targeting WhatsApp in the future and hopes to donate the awarded funds to digital rights organisations. NSO pledges to appeal NSO Group, which describes itself as a 'cyber intelligence' company, maintained in court that Pegasus cannot be used on US phone numbers and claimed WhatsApp had suffered no actual harm. Gil Lainer, a spokesperson for NSO, criticised the verdict, calling it 'another step in a lengthy judicial process.' He said the firm would explore 'further proceedings' or an appeal, adding: 'We firmly believe our technology plays a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism… this perspective was excluded from the jury's consideration.' Despite the ruling, Meta acknowledged that recovering the damages may be a lengthy process. Mobile finder: CMF Phone 2 Pro goes on sale in India
India Today
07-05-2025
- Business
- India Today
Meta wins Rs 1,400 crore lawsuit against Pegasus-maker NSO group over WhatsApp hack
Meta has won Rs 1,400 crore or $167.25 million in a lawsuit against Israel's NSO Group, the maker of the Pegasus spyware. Additionally, the federal jury in California also rewarded Meta $444,719 (which is over Rs 3.7 crore) in compensatory damages. 'Today's verdict in WhatsApp's case is an important step forward for privacy and security as the first victory against the development and use of illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone. 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,' Meta said in a statement share in a blog post. "We will carefully examine the verdict's details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal," NSO Group vice president for global communication Gil Lainer said, according to a report by AFP . In 2019, Meta sued the NSO group for hacking into 1,400 WhatsApp users' accounts using the Pegasus spyware. The attack, which was first pointed out by Citizen Lab, infected smartphones with the spyware via a phone call. It didn't matter whether a user answered the call or not. Once a phone was infected, the Pegasus spyware took control over a users' camera and microphone remotely, and was able to access their call records, look through their messages, emails, access their locations, etc. In December 2024, a US court held the NSO Group liable for WhatsApp hacks. 'NSO's Pegasus works to covertly compromise people's phones with spyware capable of hoovering up information from any app installed on the device. Think anything from financial and location information to emails and text messages, or as NSO conceded: 'every kind of user data on the phone.' It can even remotely activate the phone's mic and camera – all without people's knowledge, let alone authorisation,' Meta writes in the post. The hack particularly targeted journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats and affected users in over 50 countries. And according to a court filing last month, at least 100 of the 1,400 attacks were located in India. These targets reportedly took place in a span of two months between April and May 2019. Meta says that its investigation found that Meta was not the only target for the NSO Group. 'While we stopped the attack vector that exploited our calling system in 2019, Pegasus has had many other spyware installation methods to exploit other companies' technologies to manipulate people's devices into downloading malicious code and compromising their phones', Meta claims. Meta says that the NSO Group was 'forced to admit that it spends tens of millions of dollars annually to develop malware installation methods including through instant messaging, browsers, and operating systems, and that its spyware is capable of compromising iOS or Android devices to this day'. In 2021, Apple also sued the NSO Group for using the Pegasus spyware to target iPhone users. Apple had said at the time that it was 'seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices'.
