Security News > 2021 > November > Apple Sues Israel's NSO Group for Spying on iPhone Users With Pegasus Spyware

Apple has sued NSO Group and its parent company Q Cyber Technologies in a U.S. federal court holding it accountable for illegally targeting users with its Pegasus surveillance tool, marking yet another setback for the Israeli spyware vendor.

"State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering in a statement.

"Apple devices are the most secure consumer hardware on the market - but private companies developing state-sponsored spyware have become even more dangerous."

The company said the attackers created over 100 bogus Apple IDs to send malicious data to the victims' devices, effectively allowing NSO Group or its clients to deliver and install Pegasus spyware without their knowledge.

"The abusive data was sent to the target phone through Apple's iMessage service, disabling logging on a targeted Apple device so that Defendants could surreptitiously deliver the Pegasus payload via a larger file," Apple detailed in its filing.

"The steps Apple is taking today will send a clear message: in a free society, it is unacceptable to weaponize powerful state-sponsored spyware against innocent users and those who seek to make the world a better place," Ivan Krstic, Apple's head of security engineering and architecture, said in a tweet.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2021/11/apple-sues-israels-nso-group-for-spying.html