Back to Headlines
Tech
Jun 12, 2026
Analyzed by Llama- 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Spyware Firm NSO Group Accused of Targeting WhatsApp Users Despite US Court Order

AI Summary
NSO Group, a spyware firm, has been accused of targeting WhatsApp users with malicious links despite a US court order forbidding it from doing so. Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, claims that NSO Group has violated the injunction and is seeking to hold the company in contempt.

The Alleged Violation of Court Order

A spyware firm, NSO Group, has been targeting WhatsApp users with malicious links in contravention of a US court order forbidding it from doing so, Meta has said. In a post, Meta said WhatsApp had “caught and disrupted spear phishing attempts” by NSO Group, which a spokesperson said targeted a handful of users in Jordan and Lebanon.

NSO Group's History with WhatsApp

NSO was founded in Israel but, since last year, is under US ownership. It built the Pegasus spyware, at the time one of the most powerful surveillance tools ever – which used a vulnerability in WhatsApp to infiltrate users’ phones and harvest all their data: messages, photos, calls and more.

The Financial and Legal Implications

  • NSO lost a court case against Meta for exploiting WhatsApp to target people; Meta was awarded $167m in damages.
  • A later case reduced this to $4m but placed a permanent injunction against NSO barring it from targeting WhatsApp and its users.

The Impact on NSO Group's Reputation and Future

“To me, it’s an astonishing signal of hubris that NSO would do this while permanently enjoined from not doing it,” said John Scott Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab. “It either speaks to the fact that they think they wouldn’t get caught, or to the fact that they believe, rightly or wrongly, they have a special way to not face the consequences of violating a US federal permanent court injunction.”

The Future Outlook for NSO Group

Since the start of the Trump administration, reporting has suggested that NSO is searching for a way into the US market – and to do so is trying to get off the US commerce department “blacklist”, which bars it from doing business with US companies without specific approval.