Security News
French lawmakers have launched an investigation into Israeli offensive cybersecurity company NSO Group after they learned French President Emmanuel Macron topped a list of 14 heads of states potentially targeted by the company's spyware. The world leaders were potential targets, according to a list of 50,000 phone numbers believed linked to the NSO Group and leaked to Amnesty International and the Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories.
News of a zero-click zero-day in Apple's iMessage feature being incorporated into the notorious Pegasus mobile spyware from NSO Group has drawn a variety of reactions from the security community, including concerns about the security of Apple's closed ecosystem, and varying views on NSO Group's culpability for how Pegasus is used. He added, "Apple aims their statements about security and privacy at consumers. However, the majority of the individuals targeted by the NSO group are not categorized as typical consumers and Apple needs to recognize that securing these individuals may require help from third parties."
NSO Group, the Israeli cyberweapons arms manufacturer behind the Pegasus spyware - used by authoritarian regimes around the world to spy on dissidents, journalists, human rights workers, and others - was hacked. Most interesting is a list of over 50,000 phone numbers that were being spied on by NSO Group's software.
Israeli-based NSO Group is being blasted in a groundbreaking report that alleges that the company's controversial Pegasus malware is being used to target activists, journalists, business executives and politicians on a widespread level, using a variety of exploits - including a zero-click zero-day in iOS. A consortium of journalists leveled the allegations in a report called Pegasus Project, which was published Sunday. It examined leaked data from the NSO Group, which revealed a cache of more than 50,000 mobile phone numbers worldwide that the firm was storing, according to the report published by the Guardian newspaper.
Human rights non-governmental organization Amnesty International and non-profit project Forbidden Stories revealed in a recent report that they found spyware made by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group deployed on iPhones running Apple's latest iOS release, hacked using zero-day zero-click iMessage exploits. Citizen Lab was able to independently observe NSO Pegasus spyware deployed on an iPhone 12 Pro Max running iOS 14.6, hacked via a zero-day zero-click iMessage exploit, which does not require interaction from the target.
Amnesty International and French journalism advocacy organisation Forbidden Stories say they've acquired a leaked list of individuals targeted by users of Israeli spyware-for-law-enforcement operator NSO Group, and that Heads of State, academics, diplomats, human rights advocates, and media figures are among those targeted. Perhaps the most explosive claim is that NSO products were used to target family members of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the days before he was murdered in Istanbul.
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.
Israeli spyware maker NSO Group has taken a leaf out of Hollywood in an attempt to avoid any legal repercussions from making and selling tools that hack WhatsApp users' phones. When NSO failed to turn up in court in the US state, Facebook claimed victory; and NSO accused it of lying and having failed to serve the legal documents.
Facebook's lawsuit against NSO Group over alleged spying on WhatsApp users will be allowed to go forward. WhatsApp-owner Facebook is alleging that NSO Group exploited a vulnerability in WhatsApp to deploy its spyware against human rights activists, journalists and political dissidents.
Facebook won a significant legal victory on Thursday when the judge hearing the lawsuit against Israeli spyware maker NSO Group declined to dismiss the case - and allowed the crucial discovery process to move forward. Last October, Facebook and its WhatsApp subsidiary sued NSO Group, and its Q Cyber Technologies affiliate, in the Northern District of California.