Meta Wins Massive Spyware Damages Case – $167 Million!

Meta just scored a significant win in its long-running battle against NSO Group, the makers of Pegasus spyware. A US jury has awarded Meta $167 million in damages against the spyware maker. This is a landmark decision in the fight against the surveillance-for-hire tech that secretly compromised WhatsApp users.

A bit of backstory

If you’re hearing about Pegasus for the first time, it is spyware made by the NSO Group. Back in 2019, Meta uncovered an alarming security breach on WhatsApp. The culprit was Pegasus, a sophisticated spyware tool developed by the Israeli firm NSO Group. The spyware took advantage of a vulnerability in WhatsApp’s calling feature, infiltrating the phones of over 1,400 users. 

Typically, malware requires users to act, such as clicking on a link or downloading an email attachment, for it to infect the device. However, what made Pegasus so dangerous is that it infected devices without users needing to answer the call. Pegasus seemed to target human rights activists, journalists, diplomats, and other members of civil society. 

While Meta worked quickly to patch the exploit and notify affected users, the damage had already been done. The spyware had already extracted messages, tracked locations, and gained access to sensitive data. It even remotely activated the microphones and cameras on phones.

Ultimately, this led Meta to respond with a lawsuit against NSO Group.

Meta’s victory against Pegasus spyware

In this latest ruling, Meta triumphed over the spyware maker and received damages. According to WhatsApp’s VP of Global Communications Carl Woog, “Today, the jury’s decision to force NSO, a notorious foreign spyware merchant, to pay damages is a critical deterrent to this malicious industry against their illegal acts aimed at American companies and the privacy and security of the people we serve.”

Woog also reminded the public that WhatsApp wasn’t the only tech that Pegasus had targeted. During the trial, NSO admitted that it had spent millions of dollars a year developing new methods of installation that compromised all kinds of apps and services, such as instant messengers, browsers, and operating systems such as iOS and Android.

Woog also points out that it might take a while to collect the damages from NSO. But in the meantime, Meta is donating to digital rights organizations “that are working to defend people against such attacks around the world.”