{"id":27257,"date":"2025-05-06T23:40:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T23:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27257"},"modified":"2025-05-07T00:29:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T00:29:52","slug":"nso-group-ordered-to-pay-meta-167-million-in-damages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27257","title":{"rendered":"NSO Group Ordered to Pay Meta $167 Million in Damages"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Meta had sued the firm, NSO Group, for using its spyware to hack 1,400 WhatsApp accounts belonging to journalists, dissidents and others.<\/p>\n

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The Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group was ordered on Tuesday to pay $167 million in damages to Meta, capping a six-year legal battle after NSO hacked 1,400 WhatsApp accounts belonging to journalists, human-rights activists and government officials.<\/p>\n

In December, Judge Phyllis Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that NSO Group had broken cybersecurity laws by using its popular Pegasus spying software to target phones with WhatsApp installed in 20 countries. Meta owns WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging app with over two billion users, as well as Facebook and Instagram.<\/p>\n

In March, Meta filed a brief seeking damages from NSO Group, and last week a jury heard arguments about potential penalties. The jury awarded the damages on Tuesday after two days of deliberations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury\u2019s verdict today to punish NSO is a critical deterrent to the spyware industry against their illegal acts aimed at American companies and our users worldwide,\u201d Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said in a statement. \u201cThis is an industrywide threat, and it\u2019ll take all of us to defend against it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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WhatsApp said it would donate the damages to digital rights organizations that defend people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will carefully examine the verdict\u2019s details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal,\u201d said Gil Lainer, NSO Group\u2019s vice president for global communication. \u201cWe firmly believe that our technology plays a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism and is deployed responsibly by authorized government agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

WhatsApp sued NSO Group in 2019, accusing it of gaining access to WhatsApp servers without permission. The trial, during which NSO Group executives testified in court for the first time, shed light on the company\u2019s ability to install its Pegasus software on the mobile devices of targets without their knowledge. Its executives argued that Pegasus helped law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security.<\/p>\n

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Meta had sued the firm, NSO Group, for using its spyware to hack 1,400 WhatsApp accounts belonging to journalists, dissidents and others.The Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group was ordered on Tuesday to pay $167 million in damages to Meta, capping a six-year legal battle after NSO hacked 1,400 WhatsApp accounts belonging to journalists, human-rights activists and government officials.In December, Judge Phyllis Hamilton of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that NSO Group had broken cybersecurity laws by using its popular Pegasus spying software to target phones with WhatsApp installed in 20 countries. Meta owns WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging app with over two billion users, as well as Facebook and Instagram.In March, Meta filed a brief seeking damages from NSO Group, and last week a jury heard arguments about potential penalties. The jury awarded the damages on Tuesday after two days of deliberations.\u201cThe jury\u2019s verdict today to punish NSO is a critical deterrent to the spyware industry against their illegal acts aimed at American companies and our users worldwide,\u201d Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said in a statement. \u201cThis is an industrywide threat, and it\u2019ll take all of us to defend against it.\u201dWhatsApp said it would donate the damages to digital rights organizations that defend people.\u201cWe will carefully examine the verdict\u2019s details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal,\u201d said Gil Lainer, NSO Group\u2019s vice president for global communication. \u201cWe firmly believe that our technology plays a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism and is deployed responsibly by authorized government agencies.\u201dWhatsApp sued NSO Group in 2019, accusing it of gaining access to WhatsApp servers without permission. The trial, during which NSO Group executives testified in court for the first time, shed light on the company\u2019s ability to install its Pegasus software on the mobile devices of targets without their knowledge. Its executives argued that Pegasus helped law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27259,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27257"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27260,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27257\/revisions\/27260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}