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HomeNewsWorld's NewsIsraeli Firm NSO Gets Sued For Cyber Espionage By WhatsApp

Israeli Firm NSO Gets Sued For Cyber Espionage By WhatsApp

In a fit of outrage, Facebook has sued an Israeli based cyber technology firm called NSO for aiding the governments in compromising the privacy of numerous WhatsApp users who are considered to be very influential figures in their society. The targeted persons include politician, journalists and human rights activists from 20 countries.

The news of Whats App hack by NSO had emerged few months back following that Facebook had advised its users to upgrade to the new version.

Whatsapp Double Down For Its Tussle With NSO

Facebook on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against NSO in a San Francisco court for breach of privacy and aiding in committing crimes. The social media giant has alleged that the firm had developed a software called Pegasus that could be remotely installed into the targets phone to hijack it.

The reason why they were so successful in hacking the social media app was because they managed to emulate the encryption and messaging system used by the application. The hijacking software was in 20 different countries across four different continents. So far, Mexico, UAE, and Bahrain have been appropriately identified. The spying software was being used to spy on various influential figures like journalists and senior government officials.

The objective of the filed lawsuit is to get company’s licenses cancelled and get it completely banned. The lawsuit further intends to stop any and all aid the firm is receiving from the Israeli government.

This Is Not The First Time This Happened

This isn’t the first time that such a lawsuit has been filed against the cyber technology firm previously other organizations like the UK based amnesty international or journalist Omar Abdul-Aziz a close friend of the slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered in the Saudi embassy In Turkey took the Israeli firm to court stating their phones had been compromised in Israel and Cyprus using their technology.

NSO’s Response to WhatsApp Espionage Accusations

always licensed our product to authorized government intelligence agencies as a tool to counter-terrorism, and other anti-state activities.”

The firm further reportedly said “we will defend ourselves with the highest level of vigor and aggression as we believe we have done nothing wrong “

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