{"id":3367,"date":"2025-10-18T11:38:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/18\/us-court-bars-israeli-spyware-firm-from-targeting-whatsapp-users\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T11:38:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:38:26","slug":"us-court-bars-israeli-spyware-firm-from-targeting-whatsapp-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/18\/us-court-bars-israeli-spyware-firm-from-targeting-whatsapp-users\/","title":{"rendered":"US court bars Israeli spyware firm from targeting WhatsApp users"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>The judge ruled NSO caused \u2018irreparable harm\u2019 to Meta, but said an earlier award of $168m in damages was \u2018excessive\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>A United States judge has granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker the NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users, saying the firm\u2019s software causes \u201cdirect harm\u201d but slashed an earlier damages award of $168m to just $4m.<\/p>\n<p>In a ruling on Friday granting WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction to stop NSO\u2019s spyware from being used in the messaging service, district judge Phyllis Hamilton said the Israeli firm\u2019s \u201cconduct causes irreparable harm\u201d, adding that there was \u201cno dispute that the conduct is ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/6\/9\/italy-cuts-ties-with-israeli-spyware-firm-paragon-amid-surveillance-scandal\">Italy cuts ties with Israeli spyware firm Paragon amid surveillance scandal<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/opinions\/2025\/6\/27\/ai-is-turning-border-enforcement-in-the-us-into-a-game\">AI is fuelling a new wave of border vigilantism in the US<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/26\/why-has-microsoft-cut-israel-off-from-some-of-its-services\">Why has Microsoft cut Israel off from some of its services?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Hamilton said NSO\u2019s conduct \u201cserves to defeat\u201d one of the key purposes of the service offered by WhatsApp: privacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart of what companies such as WhatsApp are \u2018selling\u2019 is informational privacy, and any unauthorised access is an interference with that sale,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>In her ruling, Hamilton said that evidence at trial showed that NSO reverse-engineered WhatsApp code to stealthily install its spyware Pegasus on users\u2019 phones, and repeatedly redesigned it to escape detection and bypass security fixes.<\/p>\n<p>NSO was founded in 2010 and is based in the Israeli seaside tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n<p>Pegasus \u2013 a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/2\/8\/what-you-need-to-know-about-israeli-spyware-pegasus\">highly invasive software<\/a> marketed as a tool for law enforcement to fight crime and terrorism \u2013 allows operators to remotely embed spyware in devices.<\/p>\n<p>NSO says it only sells the spyware to vetted and legitimate government law enforcement and intelligence agencies. But Meta, which owns WhatsApp, filed a lawsuit in California federal court in late 2019, accusing NSO of exploiting its encrypted messaging service to target journalists, lawyers and human rights activists with its spyware.<\/p>\n<p>Independent experts have also said NSO\u2019s software has been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/2\/1\/journalists-activists-targeted-in-jordan-with-israeli-made-pegasus-spyware\">used by nation states<\/a>, some with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2022\/7\/18\/pegasus-malware-targeted-thai-democracy-activists-report\">poor human rights records<\/a>, to target critics.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Hamilton said her broad injunction was appropriate given NSO\u2019s \u201cmultiple design-arounds\u201d to infect WhatsApp users \u2013 including missed phone calls and \u201czero-click\u201d attacks \u2013 as well as the \u201ccovert nature\u201d of the firm\u2019s work more generally.<\/p>\n<p>Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, said in a statement that the \u201cruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society. It sets an important precedent that there are serious consequences to attacking an American company,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Meta had asked Hamilton to extend the injunction to its other products \u2013 including Facebook, Instagram and Threads \u2013 but the judge ruled there was no way for her to determine if similar harms were being done on the other platforms without more evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton also ruled that an initial award of $168m against NSO for damages to Meta in May this year was excessive, determining that the court did not have \u201csufficient basis\u201d to support the jury\u2019s initial calculation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era for the court to be able to conclude that defendants\u2019 conduct was \u2018particularly egregious\u2019,\u201d Hamilton wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The judge ruled that the punitive damages ratio should therefore be \u201ccapped at 9\/1\u201d, reducing the initial sum by about $164m to just $4m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The judge ruled NSO caused \u2018irreparable harm\u2019 to Meta, but said an earlier award of $168m in damages was \u2018excessive\u2019. A United States judge has granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker the NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users, saying the firm\u2019s software causes \u201cdirect harm\u201d but slashed an earlier damages award of $168m to &#8230; <a title=\"US court bars Israeli spyware firm from targeting WhatsApp users\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/18\/us-court-bars-israeli-spyware-firm-from-targeting-whatsapp-users\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about US court bars Israeli spyware firm from targeting WhatsApp users\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}