US judge finds Pegasus spyware maker liable over WhatsApp hack, WhatsApp celebrates victory as judge finds Israeli company NSO Group violated state and federal US hacking laws by Blake Montgomery, 21 Dec 2024, The Guardian
WhatsApp claimed legal victory over the maker of Pegasus spyware late on Friday.
The Israeli company, NSO Group Technologies, was accused in a lawsuit by Meta’s messaging app of infecting and surveilling the phones of 1,400 people over a two-week period in May 2019 via its notorious Pegasus software.
The judge in the case, Phyllis Hamilton, found the company had violated state and federal US hacking laws as well as WhatsApp’s own terms of service.
NSO Group will face a separate jury trial in March 2025 to determine the damages it owes WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging service.
WhatsApp said in a statement: “After five years of litigation, we’re grateful for today’s decision. NSO can no longer avoid accountability for their unlawful attacks on WhatsApp, journalists, human rights activists and civil society. With this ruling, spyware companies should be on notice that their illegal actions will not be tolerated.”
NSO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a summary judgment, the judge found NSO Group violated the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Apple had filed a similar suit against the company but dropped it in September.
Colluding in spying makes them more money?
NSO Group dragged its feet throughout the litigation, according to the judge’s ruling. Hamilton had ordered NSO Group to provide WhatsApp with the source code of its spyware in early 2024. In her Friday ruling, however, she said the company repeatedly failed to comply, a major reason she granted WhatsApp’s request for sanctions against the company.
Though the lawsuit was filed in California, NSO Group made its source code available to view only in Israel by an Israeli citizen, which the judge called “simply impracticable”, according to the ruling.Rude douches.
NSO Group has repeatedly said its government clients control the use of Pegasus and are responsible for hacking carried out with it, but filings in the case showed that not to be true. The company was demonstrated to be the party that “installs and extracts” information with Pegasus, which was used to infiltrate not only WhatsApp but also iPhones to extract pictures, emails and texts.Fucking creepy wowzo.
Among the victims of the hack identified by Meta were senior government officials, journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents and diplomats. Joe Biden’s administration put NSO Group on a blacklist in 2021 and forbid US government agencies from purchasing its products.
Pegasus has been implicated in hacks by authoritarian governments across the world.And is best pals with super creepy IDU chair, Steve Harper?
2023: Pegasus: The Story of the World’s Most Dangerous Spyware
2020: Israeli court bans media from Pegasus spyware case trials
Israeli company NSO exports the Pegasus spyware, which has been used by governments across the world against opposition activists and journalists, including in India.
In an apparent move to save the NSO group – owner of the Pegasus spyware – from public criticism, an Israeli court cited national security concerns and ordered a closed-door hearing in the case against the company. The case was filed by Amnesty International and they are demanding a ban on the export of Pegasus along with restrictions on the NSO group. The judge also imposed a ban on the media, preventing it from reporting on the proceedings of the case.Dirty Fucker! So many dirty judges – like Canada’s liar retired supreme court of Canada judge Rosalie Abella – enabling Israel’s genocide and crimes against humanity.
The Pegasus spyware has been used in recent years by various countries to target journalists and dissidents, including in India. The NSO group had earlier claimed it sells the spyware only to state governments to help them fight “terrorism and other crimes,” and that the company should not be implicated for any misuse of the software by these governments.
There are a large number of cases where Pegasus was found to have been used by states to curb dissent and to target journalists and activists. The spyware can be installed in a person’s phone by sending a message or a link on WhatsApp. Once installed, it can provide full access to the target’s personal files, such as chats, emails, and photos to the customer using a specially crafted code.
Last year, Facebook, on the basis of a research done by Citizen Lab, a research group affiliated with the University of Toronto, had sued the NSO group in a US court for using its online message service WhatsApp for spying on at least 1,400 activists and journalists.
Amnesty complained in 2018, that one of its employees was being targeted using the spyware. It was also allegedly used in the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, in 2018.
In October 2019, a large number of activists, lawyers and journalists in India, including Bella Bhatia, Nihal Singh Rathore and others, complained that their phones had been bugged using WhatsApp by the BJP-ruled Maharashtra State police. Most of these activists have been hounded in the controversial Bhima Koregaon case by the Indian government.
Refer also to:
My favourite quotes:
Part 1: “….like living inside the condom.”
Part 2: “The question is going to be, ‘Who have they missed?’”
Part 2: “If you publish anything, we will sue you.”
Part 2: “….it could not happen without the Israeli government’s permission.”
If 100% industry funded gov’t agencies like AER bought Pegagus, I expect multinational energy companies are happily using it to hack ‘n track law abiding citizens who oppose being raped by them, and best, on the taxpayer’s dime. And, hiding behind gov’t agency skirts like the cowards they are.
Canada’s gov’ts, police, RCMP, judges and law firms help AER/companies break the law. How many are using Pegagus to target ordinary, non terrorist, non criminal Canadians?
This documentary is excellent. Shocking chilling content. Extremely.
Dear retired supreme court of canada justice Rosalie Abella (Staunch Zionist and genocidaire): I urge you to watch this and ponder your Alice in Wonderland view of Israel. And consider the harms your lies in your ruling in Ernst vs AER caused my lawsuit, me, many other frac-harmed families, our charter and the right to freedom of expression globally. You ruled – without any evidence – that AER found me to be a vexatious litigant when the facts are that the regulator judged me to be a criminal, later magically a terrorist – also without any evidence – in writing and copied the RCMP and AG.
MARCELLUS SHALE HISTORY: Spying & Psychological Operations on Pennsylvania Citizens 2010-2014
Canada’s ex PM Steve Harper was/is an enormous fan of Israel; he served Israel far better than he ever served Canadians paying him. Did Harper buy Pegasus spyware to spy on the citizens he didn’t like, notably Indigenous opposed to frac’ing? Did he let his buddy ex Encana CEO Gwyn Morgan use it on our dime? Is Harper using it personally, after we punted him in the 2015 election?
Who needs ICORE! EUB trained deregulation – for free. It was the “Brotherhood of regulators,” says ex-EUB Chair Neil McCrank, who enabled the Caroline Cover-up and Encana illegally frac’ing Rosebud’s drinking water aquifers, with the “regulator” abusing it’s power, punishing Ernst instead of the company; was Chair when EUB incorporated the notoriously evil Synergy Alberta; authorized the “repulsive” spying on innocent Albertans that made gov’t change it to ERCB; etc., etc. A large collection of posts at this link on the 2007 EUB (now AER) illegal spying scandal.
Cartoon is the last page in retired Justice Perraz report on the “repulsive” spying by the Alberta energy regulator (EUB). EUB was ERCB. After EUB was caught breaking the law and spying on innocent (aka, non terrorist, non criminal) citizens, the gov’t renamed it ERCB. After my lawsuit went public, the govt’d changed it to AER and changed its immunity clause and removed public interest from its mandate.
Elevated Cancer risks surround oil & gas drilling. Fracking is bad for your health says Israel Health Ministry official Getting ready to frac the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas genocidal Israel and its partner, the USA, are stealing from Palestine?
2015 cartoon by Victor Juhasz: Harper’s Creepy Caucus includes Netanyahu, Koch bros, Xi Jinping, GW Bush, Cheney
Snap above from FrackingCanada
Colorado Congressman Called A ‘Terrorist’ For Pushing Community Control Of Fracking
Hey CSIS, farmers are not terrorists, Anti-fracking activists have been labelled a security threat
Snap above from FrackingCanada
Two members of Creepy Stevie Harper’s anti-terrorist (protect the oil and gas patch) squad invade Ernst’s private property, unannounced and warrantless shortly after I served legal papers on Encana/Ovintiv, AER and Alberta gov’t.
Heil Vile Harper!
Harper’s anti-terrorist RCMP squad trespassed, without a warrant, on my private property after the Alberta gov’t, Encana/Ovintiv and AER were served with my legal papers. I was in my own home, not attending any protest (contrary to what media and NGOs, claim, I am not an activist). It seems my only crime was warning the public about frac harms and filing a lawsuit against Encana et al, trying to protect the public interest. The squad wanted into my home. I refused, told them I didn’t trust them or their surveillance techniques.
“We don’t do surveillance,” they replied.
I laughed at their absurdity and didn’t let them in (I was terrified, I live alone).
I let them interrogate me outside. It was a cold February day; I gave the lead interrogator a metal chair, I sat in a wooden one; I offered blankets, tissues for their runny noses, hot tea with honey, all declined.
When the officers were done trying to scare me and get me to admit to crimes I had not committed (like AER’s lawyer Rick McKee failed at three years earlier trying to get evidence after the fact to justify the “regulator” violating my Charter rights), they left, shoulders slumped, knowing their mission for Herr Harper and buddy Encana to snare me had failed
Were citizens trying to protect their drinking water and health from frac’ing labelled terrorists/security threats – all without any evidence – so that gov’ts (and govt agencies like AER) could target and trap them with Pegasus Spyware? And give data collected to oil and gas companies (and Israel) to use to infiltrate, threaten and harm those citizens, their loved ones and their lawyers?
Vote for Harper’s Picklehead, you vote to be illegally spied on.
Wishing Steve Harper & MP Kevin Sorenson Merry Christmas: O Little Town Of Bethlehem
