Security News > 2020 > December > Tech Giants Lend WhatsApp Support in Spyware Case Against NSO Group

Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp has received new high-caliber support in its case against Israeli intelligence company NSO Group.

The court case aims to hold NSO Group accountable for distributing its Pegasus spyware on the popular WhatsApp messaging service with the intent of planting its spyware on phones of journalists and human rights workers.

A group of companies-including tech giants Google, Microsoft and Cisco Systems-have filed a legal brief called an amicus to support WhatsApp against NSO's alleged illegal cyber-surveillance activities, including selling "Cyber-surveillance as a service" to foreign governments and other companies.

The EFF, which often butts heads against tech companies over privacy issues, in this case is aligned with them against NSO. "Corporate complicity in human rights abuses is a widespread and ongoing problem, and the Ninth Circuit should not expand the ability of technology companies like NSO Group to avoid accountability for facilitating human rights abuses by foreign governments," EFF senior staff attorneys Sophia Cope and Andrew Crocker wrote in a blog post also published Monday regarding the EFF's amicus.

In the original case, WhatsApp sued NSO Group for allegedly creating tools such as Pegasus so its clients can spy on and read the protected WhatsApp messages of journalists and human rights workers.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/tech-giants-lend-whatsapp-support-in-spyware-case-against-nso-group/162552/