Super spyware maker NSO must pay Meta $168M in WhatsApp snoop drama
A California jury has awarded Meta more than $167 million in damages from Israeli surveillanceware slinger NSO Group, after the latter exploited a flaw in WhatsApp to allow its government customers to spy on supposedly secure communications.
In May 2019 engineers at WhatsApp discovered a zero-click, zero-day vulnerability in the Meta-owned chat platform that would allow an attacker to install malware on a device with just a single phone call and no requirement on the victim to do anything other than have their handheld switched on. The surveillanceware in question was Pegasus, developed by the NSO Group.
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Related Knowledge Center: Digital privacy and data security
If you’re online, you’re generating a constant stream of information about yourself — sometimes voluntarily, sometimes unwittingly — that is assembled and used to craft your online experience. And generate wealth for data brokers. Meanwhile, designers and managers of the digital infrastructure on which the world depends are engaged in a never-ending effort to thwart attempts, by both criminal enterprises and state actors, to exploit vulnerabilities in those systems.
Signalgate | State surveillance