Apple sued spyware maker NSO on Tuesday for targeting the users of its devices, saying the Israeli firm at the center of the Pegasus surveillance scandal needs to be held to account.
The suit from the Silicon Valley giant adds new trouble for NSO, which was engulfed in controversy over reports that tens of thousands of activists, journalists and politicians were listed as potential targets of its Pegasus spyware.
US authorities just weeks ago restricted relations between NSO and American groups over allegations the Israel firm “enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression.”
“To prevent further abuse and harm to its users, Apple is also seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices,” Apple said in a statement announcing the lawsuit filed in US federal court in California.
“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.
NSO did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
– ‘Mercenary spyware’ –
Facebook in 2019 sued NSO Group, accusing it of using the WhatsApp to conduct cyberespionage on journalists, human rights activists and others.
That suit, filed in a California federal court, alleged approximately 1,400 devices were targeted with malicious software to steal valuable information from those using the messaging app.
Smartphones infected with Pegasus are essentially turned into pocket spying devices, allowing the user to read the target’s messages, look through their photos, track their location and even turn on their camera without them knowing.
UN experts have called for an international moratorium on the sale of surveillance technology until regulations are implemented to protect human rights following the Pegasus scandal.
Following the initial concern over Pegasus, a subsequent wave of worries emerged when iPhone maker Apple released a fix in September for a weakness that can allow the spyware to infect devices without users even clicking on a malicious message or link.
The so-called “zero-click” is able to silently corrupt the targeted device, and was identified by researchers at Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog organization in Canada.
“Mercenary spyware firms like NSO Group have facilitated some of the world’s worst human rights abuses and acts of transnational repression, while enriching themselves and their investors,” said Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert.
An investigation by a European rights group published earlier in November found that Pegasus spyware was used to hack the phones of staff of Palestinian civil society groups targeted by Israel.
The revelations by Frontline Defenders — backed up by Amnesty International and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab — were the latest controversy to develop around the software.
