https://theintercept.com/2024/05/06/pegasus-nso-group-israeli-spyware-citizen-lab/ Search for: [ ] [Search] * Politics * Justice * National Security * World * Technology * Environment Support Us * Special Investigations * Voices * Podcasts * Videos * Documents * About * More Ways to Donate * Impact & Reports * Join Newsletter * Become a Source * * * * * * * * * (c) THE INTERCEPT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Terms of Use Privacy A photographic illustration shows a mobile phone near the NSO Group company logo on February 9, 2022 in the Israeli city of Netanya. - Israel's ground-breaking surveillance technology was once feted as a prized export bolstering diplomatic ties abroad, but reports the secret spyware was also turned on citizens at home has trigged domestic outrage. Recent bombshell allegations in Israeli media centre on the controversial Pegasus malware made by the Israeli firm NSO, which can turn a phone into a pocket spying device. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images) Support Us They Exposed an Israeli Spyware Firm. Now the Company Is Badgering Them in Court. A phone in front of the NSO Group's logo on Feb. 9, 2022, in Netanya, Israel. Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images They Exposed an Israeli Spyware Firm. Now the Company Is Badgering Them in Court. NSO Group, which makes Pegasus spyware, keeps trying to extract information from Citizen Lab researchers -- and a judge keeps swatting it down. [Shawnhe] Shawn Musgrave May 6 2024, 3:03 p.m. Support Us A photographic illustration shows a mobile phone near the NSO Group company logo on February 9, 2022 in the Israeli city of Netanya. - Israel's ground-breaking surveillance technology was once feted as a prized export bolstering diplomatic ties abroad, but reports the secret spyware was also turned on citizens at home has trigged domestic outrage. Recent bombshell allegations in Israeli media centre on the controversial Pegasus malware made by the Israeli firm NSO, which can turn a phone into a pocket spying device. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images) A phone in front of the NSO Group's logo on Feb. 9, 2022, in Netanya, Israel. Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images Share * Copy link * Share on Facebook * Share on X * Share on LinkedIn * Share on WhatsApp For years, cybersecurity researchers at Citizen Lab have monitored Israeli spyware firm NSO Group and its banner product, Pegasus. In 2019, Citizen Lab reported finding dozens of cases in which Pegasus was used to target the phones of journalists and human rights defenders via a WhatsApp security vulnerability. Now NSO, which is blacklisted by the U.S. government for selling spyware to repressive regimes, is trying to use a lawsuit over the WhatsApp exploit to learn "how Citizen Lab conducted its analysis." The lawsuit, filed in U.S. federal court in 2019 by WhatsApp and Meta (then Facebook), alleges that NSO sent Pegasus and other malware to approximately 1,400 devices across the globe. For more than four years, NSO has failed repeatedly to get the case thrown out. With the lawsuit now moving forward, NSO is trying a different tactic: demanding repeatedly that Citizen Lab, which is based in Canada, hand over every single document about its Pegasus investigation. A judge denied NSO's latest attempt to get access to Citizen Lab's materials last week. [GettyImages-1236496604-2] Related Israeli Spyware Firm NSO Demands "Urgent" Meeting With Blinken Amid Gaza War Lobbying Effort Providing its raw work to NSO, Citizen Lab's lawyers argued, would "expose individuals already victimized by NSO's activities to the risk of further harassment, including from their own governments" and chill their future work. (NSO declined to comment about the lawsuit.) NSO has mounted an aggressive campaign to rehabilitate its image in recent years, particularly since being blacklisted in 2021. Last November, following the October 7 Hamas attacks, the firm requested a meeting with the State Department to discuss Pegasus as a "critical tool that is used to aid the ongoing fight against terrorists." Most Read [GettyImage] After Raids, NYPD Denied Student Protesters Water and Food in Jail Akela Lacy [GettyImage] They Used to Say Arabs Can't Have Democracy Because It'd Be Bad for Israel. Now the U.S. Can't Have It Either. Murtaza Hussain [Prison-gua] Who Ran This Derogatory Prison Meme Page? A Prison Guard. Shawn Musgrave The company has faced other lawsuits in U.S. courts over Pegasus, including ongoing suits brought by Salvadoran journalists, Apple, and Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, the widow of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi. These lawsuits also rely on Citizen Lab's research, to varying degrees. So far, the WhatsApp lawsuit -- which NSO recently called "a one-sided 'show' trial" in the making -- has not gone particularly well for the spyware firm. At first, NSO argued it was entirely immune from being sued in American courts, which a federal appeals court roundly rejected in 2021 and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider in early 2023. Next, NSO argued the lawsuit should have been filed in Israel instead of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where both WhatsApp and Meta (which also owns WhatsApp) have their headquarters. Judge Phyllis Hamilton rejected that argument too. Join Our Newsletter Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. I'm in In perhaps the biggest blow to NSO, earlier this year Hamilton ordered the company to disclose its software code, not just for Pegasus but also for "any NSO spyware targeting or directed at WhatsApp servers, or using WhatsApp in any way to access target devices." During discovery, NSO has already obtained thousands of documents from Meta and WhatsApp regarding Citizen Lab's investigation into Pegasus. Regardless, NSO has tried and failed twice to use the lawsuit to get more information directly from Citizen Lab, which is based at the University of Toronto. In March, Hamilton denied NSO's first request to send a cross-border demand -- a "letter rogatory" -- to her counterparts at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. NSO tried again last month. "The evidence Plaintiffs themselves have produced about Citizen Lab's investigation is incomplete and inadequate," its lawyers argued, because it did not show "how Citizen Lab conducted its analysis or came to its conclusions" that Pegasus was used to target individuals in civil society, as opposed to criminals or terrorists. "We are pleased the court has recognized that NSO Group's request for information was overbroad and not necessary." Citizen Lab opposed NSO's demands on numerous grounds, particularly given "NSO's animosity" toward its research. In the latest order, Hamilton concluded that NSO's demand was "plainly overbroad." She left open the possibility for NSO to try again, but only if it can point to evidence that specific individuals that Citizen Lab categorized as "civil society" targets were actually involved in "criminal/terrorist activity." "We are pleased the court has recognized that NSO Group's request for information was overbroad and not necessary at this time to resolve the disputed issues," Citizen Lab's director, Ronald Deibert, told The Intercept. Share * Copy link * Share on Facebook * Share on X * Share on LinkedIn * Share on WhatsApp Contact the author: [Shawnhe] Shawn Musgrave shawn.musgrave@theintercept.com @ShawnMusgrave on X Related CEO of Israel's NSO Group Shalev Hulio listens during an interview with Reuters about the company's product, Eclipse, a system that commandeers and force-lands intruding drones, at Bloomfield Stadium, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 8, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad - RC255H9AYZMK In Video From Gaza, Former CEO of Pegasus Spyware Firm Announces Millions for New Venture [israel-palestine-laboratory] How Israel Commodifies Mass Killing Through Its "Palestine Laboratory" SAPIR, ISRAEL - NOVEMBER 11: A view of the Israeli cyber company NSO Group branch in the Arava Desert on November 11, 2021 in Sapir, Israel. The company, which makes the spyware Pegasus, is being sued in the United States by WhatsApp, which alleges that NSO Group's spyware was used to hack 1,400 users of the popular messaging app. An US appeals court ruled this week that NSO Group is not protected under sovereign immunity laws. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images) Israeli Spyware Firm NSO Demands "Urgent" Meeting With Blinken Amid Gaza War Lobbying Effort General Keith Alexander, former director of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and chief executive officer of IronNet Cybersecurity Inc., during a television interview in San Francisco, Feb. 15, 2017. Former NSA Chief Signed Deal to Train Saudi Hackers Months Before Jamal Khashoggi's Murder Latest Stories Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammad Jahjouh) Israel "Likely" Used U.S-Supplied Weapons in Violation of International Law. That's OK, Though, State Department Says Shawn Musgrave, Prem Thakker - 6:42 pm Antony Blinken's Report Identifies "Incidents That Raise Concerns," But Says Israel Is Not Blocking Humanitarian Aid NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 20: People gather to protest the banning of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) at Columbia University on November 20, 2023 in New York City. Students, alumni of both schools, some dressed in caps and gowns, and supporters held a "Denouncement Ceremony" and pledged not to donate money to the schools after the banning of the student groups for holding a nonviolent but unsanctioned protest demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. More than 20 progressive elected officials have sent a letter to the university calling for the reinstatement of the groups. Calls for a ceasefire in Gaza continue as the death toll from Israel's invasion of Gaza has increased in the weeks since the October 7 Hamas attack. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) Israel's War on Gaza October 7 Survivors Sue Campus Protesters, Say Students Are "Hamas's Propaganda Division" Akela Lacy - 2:44 pm Four lawsuits alleging Hamas ties against Students for Justice in Palestine, the AP, UNRWA, and a cryptocurrency exchange share many of the same plaintiffs. Maxine Dexter is a Democrat running for office in Oregon's Third Congressional District. Israel's War on Gaza AIPAC and Republican Donors Raising Big Money for Maxine Dexter Against Susheela Jayapal in Oregon Ryan Grim - 2:08 pm A donor to Dexter in the Portland congressional race tells The Intercept: "I give all my contributions through AIPAC." Join The Conversation * About * Support Us * Join Newsletter * Contact Us * Policies * Terms of Use * Privacy * SECUREDROP (c) The Intercept. All rights reserved