A US court has finally allowed moving forward in the case of WhatsApp users being targeted with spyware by an Israeli company. The bench led by led by Judge Phyllis Hamilton was not convinced of NSO group’s appeals, the firm which produced the spyware Pegasus that’s being used by many government authorities to spy on various people.
NSO Group May Soon Reveal Its Clients
News about journalists, human rights activists and even politicians being spied through their WhatsApp has startled everyone in 2019. This was made possible through spyware called Pegasus, that’s created by NSO Group, an Israeli company. The maker has since then claimed its spyware is distributed only to governments and law enforcement agencies, to help them in tracking terrorists.
But, it was used by adversaries to pin down activists in 2019, which raged the communities and led a deep investigation into the matter. NSO Group has appointed King & Spalding law firm to represent them and defended that their clients are confidential. Yet, WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit to open up its operations and clients. And now, these trails have moved forward with a good result for WhatsApp.
On Friday, a US court led by Judge Phyllis Hamilton declared that she was not convinced by the claims and arguments of NSO Group, that it had not targeted WhatsApp users as alleged. Thus, she declared to move forward in the trail, which could force the NSO group to reveal its clients’ list to the public.
The judge also said that “even if NSO was operating at the direction of its customer, it still appeared to have a hand in targeting WhatsApp users.” And this decision of moving forward for the trail is pleased by WhatsApp, as said by its spokesperson.
Via: Republic World
