Eight things we learned from WhatsApp vs. NSO Group spyware lawsuit

On May 6 Whatsapp has won a great victory against the NSO group When the jury ordered more than 1 million damage to the manufacturer of unsuspecting spy software, when you order the transfer of a meta company.

The judge closed the legal battle for more than five years, which began in October 2019 WhatsApp blamed the NSO group Making a user of more than 1300 users, taking advantage of a sensitivity in the chat app Audio-call functionality.

The sentence came after several certificates, including the General Director of the NSO Group Yaron Shohat and WhatsApp employees who answered and investigating the incident.

Even before the court started, it had found several revelations, including the NSO group The government cut 10 of its customers To abuse the pegasus spy program, 1223 places of victims For Spyware Campaign and for Spyware Maker for the name: Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

TechCrunch read more than 1,000 pages of court hearings. We emphasized the most interesting facts and verses below.

Whatsapp described how the attack works

This Zero click attackNoting that the spy program did not interact with the target, “Fake Whatsapp worked by putting a phone call,” said WhatsApp’s lawyer Antonio Perez during the trial. The lawyer explained that the NSO group called the “WhatsApp Installation server”, a special machine designed to send malicious messages between WhatsApp’s infrastructure, a special machine designed to watch real messages.

“After receiving once, these messages trigger the user’s phone to reach the third server and download the Pegasus spy program. This was the only thing that needs to happen was the phone number,” Perez said.

NSO Group Research and Development Deputy President Tamir Gazneli, “An important stage for Pegasus said it was a solution to any zero click.

The NSO admitted to target WhatsApp users after the claim

After the spyware attack, NSSEP filed a lawsuit against the NSO group against the NSO group. Despite the active legal call, Spyware Maker, NSO Group’s Research and Development Vice President Tamir Gazni’nin Tamir Gazni’s users targeted.

Gazneli, “Edinli” said WhatsApp was one of the version of the zero clicking vector, was used by the end of 2019 by the end of 2019.

The NSO confirms that the American phone number targeted as a test for FBI

Over the years, the NSO group cannot be used against the American phone numbers of the spy program, and the +1 cannot express any cell number that started with the country code.

In 2022 The New York Times first informed The company said the US phone “attacked”, but it was part of a test for FBI.

The NSO group’s lawyer Joe Akrotirianakis confirmed it, “The only exception” was not able to target Pegasus +1 numbers, “Pegasus was a special configured version of US government customers to use in potential demonstration.”

FBI The selected was reported not to place Pegasus after the test.

How do NSO government customers use Pegasus

NSO Director-General Shohat, the user interface for Pegasus’s government customers, the hack method or technician’s use hack methods or techniques should not choose to choose to use which vector for using which vector they need. ”

In other words, this is a pegasus system in the background that chooses technology that hacked the known technology exploitEach time the spy program targets a person.

Nso says hundreds of people work

Shohat, a small but noticeable detail announced: NSO Group and its mother company, Q cyber, 350 and 380 employees from 350 to 380. It is about 50 cyber work of these workers.

NSO headquarters shares the same building as apples

In a funny coincidence, NSO group headquarters In Israel in the same building in Herzliya, the city of Tel Aviv like appleiPhone customers are often targeted by the NSO Pegasus spy program. Said holding the first five floors of NSO and the apple occupies the rest of the 14-storey building.

“We share the same elevator when we go,” he said.

The fact that the headquarters of the NSO headquarters obviously advertised is somewhat interesting. Other companies that develop spy program or zero days Barcelona Based Varistonthis closed in FebruaryThe official website was located in the workshop when they demanded another location.

Millions of Pegasus Spyware European customers

An NSO Group employee is $ 1 million or $ 1 million in addition to the “Standard Price” or “Standard Price”, “Standard Price” for European customers in 2018-2020.

These new details are included in the trial in the full context of the phrases, but it presents an idea that governments can pay the right as a newly developed spy program like Pegasus. While not clearly defined, “Hidden Vectors” probably belong to the secret techniques used to plant a spy program on the target phone Click Zero ExploitDoes not need a pegasus operator to interact with a message or to hit a link to hack.

This Spyware and zero days may vary depending on prices Several factors: Customer, when selling countries such as Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates, for example, the customer, for example, received more money such as the United Arab Emirates; The number of appropriate goals that the customer can spy at any time; and feature attachments such as zero clicking capabilities.

All of these factors can explain that one European customer will pay $ 7 million in 2019, Saudi Arabia is reported to pay $ 55 million and Mexico has paid $ 61 million for several years.

The NSO describes a state of financial condition

During the trial, Shohat answered questions about the company’s finances, some of them were announced in the depressions before the court. These Details have reached how much damage to Spyware Maker is due to how much money you have to pay for WhatsApp.

According to the documents issued by the NSO, Spyware Maker also said that $ 2023 and $ 12 million in 2023, $ 12 million, $ 5.8 million and $ 5.1 million, $ 10 million worth $ 10 million.

He also appeared to be around $ 3.2 million in the bank in both 2023 and 2024.

During the test, he presented the research and development sections – 52 million dollars costs and $ 59 million in 2023 – 202 million dollars spent in the program – to find weaknesses and how to use them.

In these numbers, factoring, spy software manufacturer, hoping to avoid paying less or less damage.

“I don’t think we can pay for something. We are fighting for the advantage of our heads.” “We’re in charge of us [chief financial officer] Just as we have enough money to prioritize costs and meet our obligations, and to make sure it is clearly weekly. “

First, it was published on May 10, 2025 and was updated with additional information.