The leading messaging service WhatsApp has recently filed suit in federal court on Tuesday against the Israeli surveillance company NSO. The suit claim that the comapny acted illegally in helping governments to hack into the mobile devices of about more than 100 people around the world, which also comprises of journalists, human rights workers as well as women who had been the subject of online attacks.
(FILES) This file photograph taken on December 28, 2016, shows the logo of WhatsApp mobile messaging service in a studio in Paris. – A security flaw in WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, allowed sophisticated attackers to install spyware on phones, the company said May14, 2019, in the latest trouble for its parent Facebook. The vulnerability — first reported by the Financial Times, and fixed in the latest WhatsApp update — allowed hackers to insert malicious software on phones by calling the target using the app, which is used by 1.5 billion people around the world. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)
Israel’s NSO Sued by WhatsApp for Allegedly Helping Spies Hack
The suit amounted to a new legal front in an effort to limit the abuses of the burgeoning but almost completely free global surveillance industry. Taking previous events on account, victims of hacking have also sued NSO in Israeli courts, but at the same time a technology company has not before pursued such legal action for using its services in order to help conduct spying operations on the users.
WhatsApp is alleged that NSO has helped the government agencies in order to deliver malicious software through apparently harmless WhatsApp video calls, even if the targets never answered their phones.
In addition to that the malware was also capable of starting a powerful form of spying that comprised of the ability to intercept communications, steal photos as well as other forms of data, activate microphones along with cameras, track the locations of targets and much more, said people who are familiar with NSO technology.
Targets, which also comprised of religious figures as well as lawyers, were identified in total of 20 countries, as per to the WhatsApp lawsuit.
An NSO surveillance tool which is called Pegasus has also been associated in spying on Washington Post contributing writer Jamal Khashoggi in advance of the incident when he was killed by people affiliated with Saudi Arabia’s security services previous year.
This has urged government surveillance victims in order to seek remedies in the courts. This suit was filed in the United States District Court in the Northern District of California.
John Scott-Railton, who is a senior research at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School, and has helped WhatsApp investigate the aiming of civil society groups as well as contacted some of the people affected said, “This is unprecedented,”
He further added, “It’s a huge milestone in digital rights and privacy.”
NSO on the other hand has rejected the allegations, by stating that its technology is used by governments as well as law enforcement in order to fight terrorism.
In a statement NSO said “In the strongest possible terms, we dispute today’s allegations and will vigorously fight them,” adding that it was forwarded to The Washington Post by a Washington public relations agency.
The company also stated using its technology for any purposes other than averting crime along with terrorism is a misuse as well as contractually prohibited.
WhatsApp also said in a blog post that the company considers NSO and its parent company, Q Cyber Technologies, violated US and California law, along with the terms of service for WhatsApp.
Will Cathcart, who is the head of WhatsApp, stated in an op-ed that The Washington Post published online Tuesday, “At WhatsApp, we believe people have a fundamental right to privacy and that no one else should have access to your private conversations, not even us,”
He further stated, “Mobile phones provide us with great utility, but turned against us they can reveal our locations and our private messages, and record sensitive conversations we have with others.”
