US Jury Orders NSO Group to Pay $168 Million in WhatsApp Spyware Case

New Delhi: A U.S. jury on Tuesday awarded Meta-owned WhatsApp approximately $168 million in damages in its cyber-espionage case against Israeli firm NSO Group.

The lawsuit, filed in 2019 in federal court in Northern California, accused NSO of using its Pegasus spyware to hack into the smartphones of users on the messaging platform. WhatsApp alleged that NSO targeted journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others through the app.

Meta said in a blog post that the trial exposed how NSO’s surveillance-for-hire system works. According to the company, Pegasus spyware can covertly collect data from apps on a device and remotely activate the phone’s camera or microphone without the user's knowledge.

The jury awarded WhatsApp $444,719 in compensatory damages and an additional $167,254,000 in punitive damages, intended to deter similar conduct.

NSO vice president for global communication Gil Lainer said the company would review the verdict and consider further legal steps, including an appeal. He maintained that NSO's technology is used by authorised government agencies to combat crime and terrorism.

Meta also stated that NSO spent tens of millions of dollars each year developing methods to install spyware through messaging apps, browsers, and operating systems. The legal complaint said NSO reverse-engineered the WhatsApp application to emulate legitimate traffic and deliver malicious code, allowing attackers to access message content after decryption.

Meta noted that the spyware has been identified by independent experts as being used in countries with poor human rights records. The company said it would continue to take action against spyware vendors that target users globally.

NSO Group, founded in 2010 by Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, is based in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.