A U.S. federal jury has ruled in favour of WhatsApp in its cyber-espionage lawsuit against Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group, ordering the company to pay approximately $168 million in punitive damages.
The lawsuit, filed in late 2019 in the Northern District of California, alleged that NSO Group illegally installed its Pegasus spyware on smartphones via WhatsApp. The spyware was reportedly deployed after users downloaded the messaging application, according to the complaint.
“This trial (…) exposed exactly how their highly secretive, commissioned surveillance system works,” Meta wrote on his blog.
Pegasus also allows users to remotely activate smartphone cameras or microphones without knowing, according to Meta.
WhatsApp has accused NSO Group of using its app to conduct cyber-espionage against journalist, lawyers, human rights activists, and others.
On Tuesday, a jury ruled that NSO must pay WhatsApp just over $444,000 in compensatory damages and about $168 million in punitive damages.
“We will carefully review the details of the verdict and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal,” said Gil Lainer, NSO’s vice president of global communications, in response to a request for comment.
“We firmly believe that our technology plays a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism, and that it is deployed responsibly by authorised government agencies,” he added.
Independent experts have noted that Pegasus software is likely used in several countries with poor human rights records.
Founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, the NSO Group is headquartered in Herzliya, an Israeli coastal technology hub near Tel Aviv.