The NSO Group on Wednesday filed an appeal aimed at overturning a judge’s ruling that it must stop targeting the WhatsApp platform with its spyware.
On October 17, Northern California federal judge Phyllis Hamilton issued the order, determining that NSO improperly leveraged WhatsApp infrastructure to target 1,400 of the Meta-owned messaging platform’s users with its zero-click Pegasus spyware.
In a court filing ahead of the ruling, NSO told the judge that blocking it from targeting WhatsApp infrastructure to implant its spyware could “put NSO’s entire enterprise at risk” and “force NSO out of business.”
In a motion to stay the order pending the outcome of the appeal, the NSO Group again focused on the “catastrophic” damage the permanent injunction will do its business, saying that if the ruling isn’t stayed NSO will “suffer irreparable, potentially existential injuries.”
NSO said that the permanent injunction goes against the public interest because it disrupts numerous law enforcement, intelligence and counterterrorism operations.
The spyware manufacturer also argued that the judge misstated how Pegasus works and incorrectly applied the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) by wrongly interpreting the mechanism through which it harnessed WhatsApp for its targeting.
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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.
