For you WhatsApp users, the issue of privacy is definitely a very sensitive matter. Well, recently the giant instant messaging system under the auspices of Meta has once again beaten the drums of fierce war against NSO Team, a controversial cyber defense technology company from Israel.
WhatsApp accused NSO Team of breaking the law and illegally trying to infiltrate their web servers to spy on users.
The lawsuit filed by WhatsApp in United States government court reveals facts that are enough to shake your head.
According to WhatsApp, a team from the NSO Team was caught carrying out reverse-engineering, aka dismantling the WhatsApp application architecture illegally.
The goal? They want to trick WhatsApp’s security features and fake network traffic. That way, the WhatsApp system will think that suspicious activity from NSO is a legitimate transmission of information from a typical user.
The main weapon that is strongly suspected to have been used in this action was none other than Pegasus, a high level spyware made by the NSO Team whose name is already well known in the black world of electronic espionage.
Once this spyware manages to infiltrate the victim’s cellphone, the hacker can easily access very personal data ranging from text messages, photo collections, general practitioner locations and even turning on the microphone and camera secretly without the owner realizing it.
In fact, the feud between these two giants is nothing new. WhatsApp first sued NSO Team for allegedly exploiting a security flaw that infected around 1,400 users’ devices, including journalists, human rights activists and government officials in various countries.
Even though the US court had previously issued a strict order prohibiting the NSO Team from accessing or tampering with the WhatsApp system, it seems that this ban was considered a thing of the past.
As proof, WhatsApp detected a new hacking attempt that was still ongoing, where the NSO Team used methods similar to phishing attacks to trick users into clicking on malicious links.
Because of this stupid act, Meta is now asking the court to impose a legal violation (ridicule order) on the Israeli company.
On the existing side, the NSO Team always defends themselves with their classic shield. They argue that the cyber intelligence products they create are purely sold to government agencies, law enforcement and legitimate official intelligence agencies.
According to NSO, this technology is designed to combat terrorism, mapping crimes white-collar which is ruthless and saves the lives of many people.
They also claim to have no direct control over which targets are spied on by the government who buy their products.
But for WhatsApp and cybersecurity researchers, that excuse is stale. They consider that the business spyware industry like this has gone too far and is often misused by authoritarian regimes to silence criticism.
WhatsApp’s aggressive steps in taking this case to court is important evidence that technology companies will not remain silent if the privacy of billions of their users is violated.
This case is also a loud alarm system for all of us that device protection and strict regulations on electronic spying tools are urgently needed to be tightened.