El Salvador investigative journalists sue spyware maker in U.S. federal court

Washington Post

Here's a first: Journalists and a U.S. citizen are suing NSO Group

Guardian

Sworn depositions from a lawsuit between Meta-owned WhatsApp and Israeli spyware firm NSO Group show that NSO is the one that "installs and extracts" people's mobile phone data, not its government clients.

The Record

Al Mayadeen

WhatsApp, which first sued NSO in 2019 over allegations that its Pegasus software hacked 1.4K users, said NSO admitted to "extracting and decompiling WhatsApp's code" and "reverse-engineering WhatsApp" to bypass security measures and insert "zero-click" spyware.

Documentcloud

WhatsApp claims that NSO's head of research and development "confirmed" that its "zero-click vector called 'Eden'" — which was part of a "family of WhatsApp-based vectors" called "Hummingbird" — was "responsible for the attacks described in the complaint."

WION

WhatsApp argued in its deposition that NSO customers "only needed to enter the target device’s number and 'press Install, and Pegasus will install the agent on the device remotely without any engagement,'" citing a former employee of U.S.-based NSO affiliate Westbridge.

Cyber Daily

Forbidden Stories

This follows a July report on leaked Israeli government documents, which found that NSO Group was worried about the lawsuit revealing its "US customers," including documents related to "the Jeff Bezos hack or Khashoggi killing."

NSO software has been linked to hacks in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, India, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, and Hungary. While US Pres. Joe Biden blacklisted the company in 2021, NSO continues to lobby Congress to reverse the decision.

NBC #1

Washington Post #1

Guardian #3899

The Record #

Al Mayadeen #

Documentcloud #

WION #

Cyber Daily #

Forbidden Stories #

Spyware companies like NSO have led to justified public backlash, but that shouldn't result in an outright ban on these technologies. While Western governments are at the forefront of the fight to restrain malicious spyware schemes, they also need access to these tools to combat adversarial regimes and nonstate actors, especially terrorists. International treaties are already being built to ensure a happy medium, which is the path the world should stick to.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace #

Harmonizing Recent Campaigns to Tame the Hacking Marketplace

The US government has been on the right track over the last four years — from Pres. Biden's blacklisting of NSO Group to Congress requiring incident reporting regulations. However, the incoming Trump administration appears to be extremely friendly with Israel, which means these bans and regulations could go out the window come January. Protecting sovereign citizens from the prying eyes of intel agencies and private firms should be a bipartisan effort.

Wired

Wired #2729

More Spyware, Fewer Rules: What Trump’s Return Means for US Cybersecurity

There's a 7% chance that a major cyberattack, virus, worm, etc. that uses LLMs in some important way will occur before January 1st, 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.

Depositions: NSO Group, Not Government Clients, Operates NSO Spyware

Depositions: NSO Group, Not Government Clients, Operates NSO Spyware

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Depositions: NSO Group, Not Government Clients, Operates NSO Spyware

Depositions: NSO Group, Not Government Clients, Operates NSO Spyware

The Facts

The Spin

Metaculus Prediction

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