NSO Group Must Pay More Than $167 Million In Damages To WhatsApp For Spyware Campaign (techcrunch.com) 7
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Spyware maker NSO Group will have to pay more than $167 million in damages to WhatsApp for a 2019 hacking campaign against more than 1,400 users. On Tuesday, after a five-year legal battle, a jury ruled that NSO Group must pay $167,256,000 in punitive damages and around $444,719 in compensatory damages. This is a huge legal win for WhatsApp, which had asked for more than $400,000 in compensatory damages, based on the time its employees had to dedicate to remediate the attacks, investigate them, and push fixes to patch the vulnerability abused by NSO Group, as well as unspecified punitive damages.
The trial, as well as the whole lawsuit, prompted a series of revelations, such as the location of the victims of the 2019 spyware campaign, as well as the names of some of NSO Group's customers. The ruling marks the end -- pending a potential appeal -- of a legal battle that started in more than five years ago, when WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against the spyware maker. The Meta-owned company accused NSO Group of accessing WhatsApp servers and exploiting an audio-calling vulnerability in the chat app to target around 1,400 people, including dissidents, human rights activists, and journalists. NSO Group's spokesperson Gil Lainer left the door open for an appeal. "We will carefully examine the verdict's details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal," Lainer said in a statement.
The trial, as well as the whole lawsuit, prompted a series of revelations, such as the location of the victims of the 2019 spyware campaign, as well as the names of some of NSO Group's customers. The ruling marks the end -- pending a potential appeal -- of a legal battle that started in more than five years ago, when WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against the spyware maker. The Meta-owned company accused NSO Group of accessing WhatsApp servers and exploiting an audio-calling vulnerability in the chat app to target around 1,400 people, including dissidents, human rights activists, and journalists. NSO Group's spokesperson Gil Lainer left the door open for an appeal. "We will carefully examine the verdict's details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal," Lainer said in a statement.
Except no one will ever see a penny of that money (Score:4, Insightful)
Congrats Meta. You just made the NSO group look like a more effective tool at your own expense. Ya'll spent hundreds of thousands litigating a case that proves that the NSO group is simply a more effective organization than yourselves.
Re: (Score:2)
The company is headquartered in a warzone, somehow I don't think they care about a lawsuit outcome ordered by an American judge.
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It will prevent them from doing business in the US eventually as court sanctions stack up.
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Except that it's almost certain that the US spy agencies will continue to use their products. Besides, it's an Israeli shell company, management has already mostly abandoned the empty shell and migrated their active customers to some other shell companies leaving the debt behind. Good luck to Meta trying to extract payment from a company with no remaining assets.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Which is precisely why it matters. If you're in a war zone, it's not a good idea to anger your most significant arms dealer. If Israel does not enforce the judgement, the US could simply hold shipments of munitions, spare parts, etc...
In the middle of a proxy war with Iran, that's kind of a big deal.