Israeli cyberattack company NSO Group has been ordered by a US jury to pay Meta $167 million compensation for hacking 1,400 WhatsApp accounts, after a court case lasting five years. $445,000 more was awarded in additional damages, likely to account holders.
In the original lawsuit filed by Meta in the US, the court was asked to award $400 million damages based on the number of hours it claimed its employees spent trying to block NSO’s spyware attacks on account holders, and blocking the digital breaches that allowed the spyware to penetrate in the accounts.
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A spokesman for Meta in the US said the award made history because it was the first legal victory against a spyware company that threatens the security and privacy of citizens.”
NSO is considering an appeal and says, “We will carefully examine the verdict’s details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal. We firmly believe that our technology plays a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism and is deployed responsibly by authorized government agencies.”
The ruling hits NSO at a sensitive time, when the US, and Israel itself, are waging a campaign against Israeli cyberattack companies by significantly restricting their export capabilities, while Chinese, UAE and European companies are exporting similar technology without hindrance. Senior security officials have warned that a hit to Israeli cyberattack companies also harms the Israeli security system’s ability to generate intelligence on terrorist operatives.
Following the investigations published against NSO in July 2021 in the US media initiated by organizations like Forbidden Stories and Citizen Love, affiliated with the University of Toronto, the Biden administration waged a campaign against NSO, Candiru, and other companies in the Israeli spyware industry.
Meta’s lawsuit against NSO began even earlier, in 2020, after Meta discovered an attack by NSO that included locating users through a software vulnerability discovered in WhatsApp’s voice call system. The hack, according to Meta, included tracking “political activists, journalists, and human rights activists.” In December, the California court judge in the high-profile trial, Phyllis Hamilton, ruled that NSO violated WhatsApp’s terms of use for “malicious purposes,” and the decision on the amount of compensation was transferred to a jury.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on May 7, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
