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Secret Israeli company behind spyware piracy WhatsApp sued by Amnesty International for "surveillance of its staff"
- Amnesty International sued Israel following WhatsApp hacking
- Amnesty has accused NSO of failing to exercise due diligence in the sale of its product
- This week, WhatsApp said that NSO's spyware was used for a security breach
- WhatsApp said that the attack may have been launched against human rights groups
Amnesty International has filed a lawsuit in an Israeli court following the WhatsApp security breach earlier this week, accusing the NSO Group intelligence company of failing to exercise due diligence in exporting of their spyware.
Amnesty International has taken legal action in Israel, saying its staff could be under surveillance since the WhatsApp hacking scandal.
Amnesty is also calling on the Israeli government to revoke the NSO group's export license, the online intelligence firm whose software, WhatsApp, is behind the violation.
WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned email application, said Tuesday that the security breach had targeted human rights groups and that sophisticated spyware deployed – known as Pegasus – had been developed by the NSO.
According to an affidavit presented by an Israeli court to Amnesty International: "Amnesty International staff are constantly and justifiably concerned about continuing to be targeted and monitored."
British investor and philanthropist Stephen Peel, whose company Novalpina holds a majority stake in NSO, co-authored a letter to Amnesty on Wednesday.
NSO Group offices in Herzliya, Israel – accused of letting spyware fall into the wrong hands
Novalpina, in its letter, stated that it was "determined to do whatever it takes for the SNB technology to be used for the purpose for which it is intended to prevent human rights abuses resulting from terrorism and serious crimes and not abused abusively. " which undermines other fundamental human rights ".
NSOs claim that they only sell their technology to law enforcement agencies and intelligence services that pursue legitimate objectives, such as terrorists and criminals.
Amnesty said in an email this week that NSO had "again and again demonstrated its intention to avoid liability for the use of their software", and that only government intervention could change that.
The NSO did not comment on any specific attacks, but after the WhatsApp infringement, she stated that she would investigate any "credible misuse claim" of her "technology" that is operated solely by intelligence services and law enforcement agencies ".
Novalpina has declared its intention to align NSO governance with the principles of the United Nations and will seek clarification from Amnesty and other groups "on the best way to do so. achieve this important goal ".
The Israeli Ministry of Defense declined to comment this week on Amnesty International's petition against the NSO's export license.
WhatsApp said that a vulnerability of the famous communication application left mobile phones infected with sophisticated spyware
WhatsApp, one of the world's most popular messaging tools, used by 1.5 billion people a month, said he had asked the United States Department of Justice to "pay for it." assist in the investigation as part of this investigation and encouraged its users to update the latest version of the application, where the violation had been fixed.
One of the targets of the new WhatsApp exploit was a UK-based human rights lawyer, who requested anonymity, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The lawyer is helping a Saudi dissident and several Mexican journalists launch civil suits against NSO for its alleged role in selling hacking tools to the Saudi and Mexican governments, allegedly used to hack their phones.
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