Apple to sue NSO Group for ‘surveillance and targeting’ of its users
Apple has filed a lawsuit against Israel’s NSO Group, producer of the Pegasus ‘spyware’ product which has reportedly been used against journalists, human rights activists and others – by the governments that have purchased it.
In a press release of 23 November, Apple said it had filed the suit ‘to hold [NSO and its parent company] accountable for the surveillance and targeting of Apple users’. The complaint provides new information on how NSO Group infected victims’ devices with its Pegasus spyware.
It added that to ‘prevent further abuse and harm to its users, Apple is also seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices.’
Apple said: ‘NSO Group creates sophisticated, state-sponsored surveillance technology that allows its highly targeted spyware to surveil its victims. These attacks are only aimed at a very small number of users, and they impact people across multiple platforms, including iOS and Android. Researchers and journalists have publicly documented a history of this spyware being abused to target journalists, activists, dissidents, academics, and government officials.’
NSO was one of a number of companies added to the US Department of Commerce Entity List earlier in November. The Bureau of Industry and Security said at the time, ‘[T]hese entities developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers. These tools have also enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression, which is the practice of authoritarian governments targeting dissidents, journalists and activists outside of their sovereign borders to silence dissent. Such practices threaten the rules-based international order.’
The NSO Group has vigorously attempted to rebut allegations made about the use of its technology. On its website it says, ‘Our products help licensed government intelligence and law-enforcement agencies lawfully address the most dangerous issues in today’s world. NSO’s technology has helped prevent terrorism, break up criminal operations, find missing persons, and assist search and rescue teams.’
Followings its inclusion on the Entity List, NSO Group said it was ‘dismayed by the decision given that our technologies support US national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime, and thus we will advocate for this decision to be reversed. We look forward to presenting the full information regarding how we have the world’s most rigorous compliance and human rights programs that are based [on] the American values we deeply share, which already resulted in multiple terminations of contacts with government agencies that misused our products.’
