A California federal judge on Friday declined to stay an order preventing the NSO Group from using WhatsApp infrastructure to mount spyware attacks.
NSO Group had sought to stay the order pending a decision on its appeal in the case, which centers on allegations that it targeted 1,400 WhatsApp users with its powerful zero-click Pegasus spyware in 2019.
The spyware manufacturer has said that the permanent injunction will cause “catastrophic” damage to its business and that it will “suffer irreparable, potentially existential injuries” as a result.
“The court does not find that defendants have made a strong showing of likelihood
of success on the merits of their arguments regarding liability,” the opinion says.
“Even based only on the limited discovery provided by defendants, the undisputed evidence showed that NSO went far beyond their authorized use of Whatsapp by reverse-engineering the application to design a spyware vector which allowed NSO’s clients to surveil Whatsapp’s users and obtain data from its servers.”
The judge did issue a limited administrative stay of up to 45 days to allow NSO Group to ask an appeals court to weigh in.
Recorded Future
Intelligence Cloud.
No previous article
No new articles
Suzanne Smalley
is a reporter covering privacy, disinformation and cybersecurity policy for The Record. She was previously a cybersecurity reporter at CyberScoop and Reuters. Earlier in her career Suzanne covered the Boston Police Department for the Boston Globe and two presidential campaign cycles for Newsweek. She lives in Washington with her husband and three children.
