Americas
Israeli Spyware Firm Odered to Pay $167 Million for WhatsApp Hack
The Pegasus tool enabled “zero-click” attacks that could infect devices without any user interaction, a capability governments allegedly used to surveil journalists, dissidents and activists worldwide.
A US federal jury ordered Israeli spyware company NSO Group to pay more than $167 million in damages for hacking the devices of approximately 1,400 WhatsApp users in 2019 using its Pegasus software.
The verdict delivered Tuesday after a five-year legal battle includes $167.25 million in punitive damages and $445,000 in compensatory damages to WhatsApp and its parent company, Meta.
The US District Court for the Northern District of California rejected NSO Group’s claim of sovereign immunity as a private company, finding that the Pegasus spyware exploited vulnerabilities in WhatsApp’s platform.
The Pegasus tool enabled “zero-click” attacks that could infect devices without any user interaction, a capability governments allegedly used to surveil journalists, dissidents and activists worldwide.
Meta hailed the ruling as “the first victory against illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone.”
“The jury’s decision to force NSO to pay damages is a critical deterrent to this malicious industry against their illegal acts aimed at American companies and our users worldwide,” it said in a statement.
Evidence presented during the trial revealed WhatsApp was not NSO’s only target. Meta noted that while it stopped the attack vector that exploited the company’s calling system in 2019, “Pegasus has had many other spyware installation methods” targeting different technologies.
The case began in October 2019 when WhatsApp filed a lawsuit claiming that the NSO Group had deployed malware to some mobile devices.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
Kenyan player wins a Ksh3.2 million jackpot
IEBC Sets August 10 Date For 2027 General Election
Furious Ruto Lashes Out at Gideon Moi Over Repeated ‘Blackmail, Extortionist’ Headlines on The Standard and KTN
Mombasa Gripped by ‘Male Organ Theft’ Panic as Social Media Fuels Mob Attacks and Fear
TOO MUCH PR, NOTHING TO SEE: How Gladys Wanga Built a Perfect Story of Transformation While Homa Bay Bled
Netanyahu Says Israel Must ‘Break Free from Dependence’ After Tensions With Trump Administration
Niger pulls Out Of International Criminal Court After Calling It Neo-Colonialist
Kenya Awards Sh154 Billion JKIA Upgrade Tender To Chinese Firm CRBC
The Untouchable: How KURA’s Silas Kinoti Has Survived A Decade Of Corruption Storms While Kenya’s Roads Bled
Fake Papers, Dirty Millions And The Analo Connect: How Kitisuru MCA Alvin Palapala Built a Shadow Empire Inside Nairobi’s Planning Machine
Businessman Philip Waithaka Kinuthia’s Minor Son Allegedly Drove Drunk, Killed Two Peponi Students in Ngong Road Horror Crash as Claims of Cover-Up Intensify
Inside NCBA’s Decline: How a Banking Giant Lost Its Strategic Edge
South Sudan: Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Exposed
Cement, Cash and Courts: How the Hashu Dynasty Crushed the Ramji Brothers for Fourteen Years and Why the Walls Are Now Closing In
Standard Chartered Ghosts Haunt Joshua Oigara At Stanbic As Whistleblower Spills Beans
Inside The Urban Planning Cartel That Owns Nairobi
THE VULTURE AND THE SCHEME How Nairobi West Hospital Became the Most Dangerous Institution in Kenya’s SHA Ecosystem and Why the Books Must Be Audited Now
The President’s Daughter and The Missing Witness: How Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Silenced Its Most Dangerous Critic
How Adil Popat Saved His Empire On The Eve Of Imperial Bank Collapse and Why Kenya’s Mainstream Media Buried The Story
Why John Ngumi Is Running From the EACC and Why the Sh415 Million Payday May Be the Least of His Worries
-
News1 week agoBusinessman Philip Waithaka Kinuthia’s Minor Son Allegedly Drove Drunk, Killed Two Peponi Students in Ngong Road Horror Crash as Claims of Cover-Up Intensify
-
Africa2 weeks agoSouth Sudan: Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Exposed
-
Business2 weeks agoStandard Chartered Ghosts Haunt Joshua Oigara At Stanbic As Whistleblower Spills Beans
-
Investigations5 days agoTHE VULTURE AND THE SCHEME How Nairobi West Hospital Became the Most Dangerous Institution in Kenya’s SHA Ecosystem and Why the Books Must Be Audited Now
-
Africa2 weeks agoThe President’s Daughter and The Missing Witness: How Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Silenced Its Most Dangerous Critic
-
Business2 weeks agoHow Adil Popat Saved His Empire On The Eve Of Imperial Bank Collapse and Why Kenya’s Mainstream Media Buried The Story
-
Business2 weeks agoWhy John Ngumi Is Running From the EACC and Why the Sh415 Million Payday May Be the Least of His Worries
-
Business5 days agoInside the Billion-Shilling Betrayal: How Senior Treasury Officials Plundered a UN Poverty Fund and Built a Real Estate Empire on the Backs of Kenya’s Rural Poor