Meta asked a federal court to hold the Israeli company in contempt.
Meta is once again asking the court to intervene in its long-running battle against spyware maker NSO Group. The company says it has disrupted a covert effort targeting WhatsApp users and is now asking a federal court to hold NSO in contempt.
Meta’s battle with the company behind the infamous Pegasus spyware dates back to 2019, when it sued the “cyber intelligence” firm for targeting human rights activists, journalists, political dissidents and others. Last year, a jury awarded Meta $167 million in damages, which a judge later reduced to $4 million. That decision also came with a permanent injunction that banned NSO from targeting WhatsApp and its users.
Less than a year later, Meta says it caught NSO violating the terms of that order. According to the company, it caught a group of NSO-linked accounts that were attempting to trick WhatsApp users into clicking malicious links, which were similar to other phishing campaigns linked to the spyware maker. According to a Meta spokesperson, the latest phishing campaign targeted fewer than 10 WhatsApp users who were “primarily” in Jordan and Lebanon.
“We have not seen any indication of any compromise between the identified targets,” the spokesperson said. In its disclosure, Meta shared the domains it had identified that were linked to the phishing campaign so that others can check if they have been targeted on WhatsApp or any other platform.
We’ve reached out to NSO Group for comment and will update if we hear back.
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