{"id":13388,"date":"2025-10-18T14:21:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T12:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/us-court-orders-spyware-company-nso-to-stop-targeting-whatsapp-reduces-damages\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:26:22","slug":"us-court-orders-spyware-company-nso-to-stop-targeting-whatsapp-reduces-damages","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/us-court-orders-spyware-company-nso-to-stop-targeting-whatsapp-reduces-damages\/","title":{"rendered":"US court orders spyware company NSO to stop targeting WhatsApp, reduces damages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In a 25-page ruling handed down Friday, US District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton imposed a permanent injunction on NSO Group&#8217;s efforts to break into WhatsApp, one of the world&#8217;s most widely used communications platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Hamilton also handed NSO a significant break on the damages awarded in a recently concluded jury trial, reducing the punitive damages it owes Meta from about $167 million to $4 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The injunction is likely to pose a challenge to NSO, which has for years been accused of facilitating human rights abuses through its flagship hacking tool, Pegasus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Pegasus takes advantage of weaknesses in commonly deployed pieces of software to power its surveillance, making WhatsApp one of its bigger targets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">NSO has previously argued that an injunction preventing it from going after WhatsApp &#8220;would put NSO\u2019s entire enterprise at risk&#8221; and &#8220;force NSO out of business,&#8221; according to the judgment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Meta executives celebrated the decision.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cToday\u2019s ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again,&#8221; WhatsApp Will Cathcart said on X. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8220;We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">NSO, which has long insisted its products fight serious crime and terrorism, said it welcomed the 97% reduction in punitive damages and <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">said<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> that the injunction did not apply to NSO&#8217;s customers, &#8220;who will continue using the company\u2019s technology to help protect public safety.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The company said it would review the decision and &#8220;determine its next steps accordingly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The company was recently purchased by a group led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds, according to a report, earlier this month in tech publication <\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">TechCrunch<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. Simonds did not immediately return an email.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13389,"template":"default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-13388","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"A United States (US) court has ordered Israel's NSO Group to stop targeting Meta Platforms' WhatsApp messaging service, a development the spyware company warned could put it out of business.||A United States (US) court has ordered Israel's NSO Group to stop targeting Meta Platforms' WhatsApp messaging service, a development the spyware company warned could put it out of business.","published_date":null,"news_description":"A United States (US) court has ordered Israel's NSO Group to stop targeting Meta Platforms' WhatsApp messaging service, a development the spyware company warned could put it out of business.||A United States (US) court has ordered Israel's NSO Group to stop targeting Meta Platforms' WhatsApp messaging service, a development the spyware company warned could put it out of business.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18532,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13388\/revisions\/18532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=13388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}