Finally, for the very first time, an encrypted messaging service provider is taking legal action against a private entity that has carried out malicious attacks against its users.
Facebook filed a lawsuit against Israeli mobile surveillance firm NSO Group on Tuesday, alleging that the company was actively involved in hacking users of its end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp messaging service.
Earlier this year, it was discovered that WhatsApp had a critical vulnerability that attackers were found exploiting in the wild to remotely install Pegasus spyware on targeted Android and iOS devices.
The flaw (CVE-2019-3568) successfully allowed attackers to silently install the spyware app on targeted phones by merely placing a WhatsApp video call with specially crafted requests, even when the call was not answered.
Developed by NSO Group, Pegasus allows access to an incredible amount of data from victims’ smartphones remotely, including their text messages, emails, WhatsApp chats, contact details, calls records, location, microphone, and camera.
Pegasus is NSO’s signature product that has previously been used against several human rights activists and journalists, from Mexico to the United…
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