{"id":80578,"date":"2025-05-07T01:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T01:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/80578\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T01:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T01:17:08","slug":"meta-awarded-167-25-million-over-pegasus-spyware-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/80578\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta awarded $167.25 million over Pegasus spyware attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">NSO Group, the Israeli spyware-maker behind Pegasus, <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/05\/winning-the-fight-against-spyware-merchant-nso\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">must pay Meta $167.25 million<\/a> for hacking 1,400 users across WhatsApp. A federal jury in California made the decision on Tuesday after the court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2024\/12\/20\/24326342\/meta-whatsapp-nso-group-pegasus-spyware-hack-liable\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">found the NSO Group<\/a> liable for the attacks last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/10\/29\/20938676\/whatsapp-nso-group-spyware-hack-encrypted-chat-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Meta sued NSO Group<\/a> in 2019 after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/5\/14\/18622744\/whatsapp-spyware-nso-pegasus-vulnerability\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Citizen Lab found a vulnerability<\/a> that allowed the spyware vendor to install Pegasus through a phone call \u2013 even if users didn\u2019t pick up. Pegasus could then turn on a user\u2019s camera and microphone, look through emails and text messages, and access location information. The hack targeted activists, journalists, diplomats, and others. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/11\/23\/22798917\/apple-nso-group-spyware-pegasus-cybersecurity-research\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple has also sued the NSO Group<\/a> for targeting iPhone users with Pegasus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">The jury also awarded Meta $444,719 in compensatory damages. \u201cToday\u2019s verdict in WhatsApp\u2019s case is an important step forward for privacy and security as the first victory against the development and use of illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone,\u201d Meta said in <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/05\/winning-the-fight-against-spyware-merchant-nso\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an announcement<\/a>. \u201cThe jury\u2019s decision to force NSO, a notorious foreign spyware merchant, to pay damages is a critical deterrent to this malicious industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">Going forward, Meta will attempt to secure a court order preventing the NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp. It has also published the unofficial transcripts from deposition videos during the trial, and says it will make a donation to digital rights organizations working to protect users from spyware.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\">NSO Group spokesperson Gil Lainer says the company \u201cwill carefully examine the verdict\u2019s details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1ymtmqpi _17nnmdy1 _17nnmdy0 _1xwtict1\"><strong>Update, May 6th: <\/strong>Added information from NSO Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NSO Group, the Israeli spyware-maker behind Pegasus, must pay Meta $167.25 million for hacking 1,400 users across WhatsApp.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2062,51,598,12,811,326,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-80578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-apps","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-meta","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-security","13":"tag-tech","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114463915647978364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}