A U.S. federal judge ruled that NSO Group can be held legally accountable for its role in hacking over 1,400 WhatsApp users using its Pegasus spyware. NSO’s claim to sovereign immunity had already failed earlier in the case, as Meta’s lawyers at Davis Polk recount, with the Supreme Court declining to hear its appeal: selling spyware to government clients does not shield private firms from liability. WhatsApp head Will Cathcart called the ruling “a huge win for privacy”, while NSO had no comment and a trial on damages is still to come. The case, brought by WhatsApp and Meta, is a rare instance of a surveillance vendor facing legal consequences for abuse of offensive cyber tools.
Ruling in WhatsApp against NSO Group case
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