A jury has awarded WhatsApp $167 million in punitive damages in a case the company brought against Israel-based NSO Group for exploiting a software vulnerability that hijacked the phones of thousands of users. The verdict, reached Tuesday, comes as a major victory not just for Meta-owned WhatsApp but also for privacy- and security-rights advocates who… Read More: Jury orders NSO to pay $167 million for hacking WhatsApp… »
Amnesty International on Friday said it determined that a zero-day exploit sold by controversial exploit vendor Cellebrite was used to compromise the phone of a Serbian student who had been critical of that country’s government. The human rights organization first called out Serbian authorities in December for what it said was its “pervasive and routine… Read More: Serbian student’s Android phone compromised by exploit from Cellebrite »
Seven out of 2,500 scans may sound like a small group, especially in the somewhat self-selecting customer base of iVerify users, whether paying or free, who want to be monitoring their mobile device security at all, much less checking specifically for spyware. But the fact that the tool has already found a handful of infections… Read More: $1 phone scanner finds seven Pegasus spyware infections »
Getty Images reader comments 22 with Share this story President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order barring many uses by the federal government of commercial spyware, which has been increasingly used by other countries in recent years to surveil dissidents, journalists, and politicians. The signing of the executive order came as administration officials… Read More: Biden’s executive order limits government’s use of commercial spyware »
Enlarge / A man walks by the building entrance of Israeli cyber company NSO Group at one of its branches in the Arava Desert on November 11, 2021, in Sapir, Israel. Amir Levy | Getty Images reader comments 113 with 80 posters participating Share this story In February 2019, an Israeli woman sat across from… Read More: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the… »
Getty Images reader comments 65 with 46 posters participating Share this story The iPhones of nine US State Department officials were infected by powerful and stealthy malware developed by NSO Group, the Israeli exploit seller that has come under increasing scrutiny for selling its wares to journalists, lawyers, activists, and US allies. The US officials,… Read More: iPhones of US diplomats hacked using “0-click” exploits from embattled… »
Aurich Lawson | Getty Images reader comments 44 with 39 posters participating Share this story Apple has released several security updates this week to patch a “FORCEDENTRY” vulnerability on iOS devices. The “zero-click, zero-day” vulnerability has been actively exploited by Pegasus, a spyware app developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, which has been known… Read More: Apple patches “FORCEDENTRY” zero-day exploited by Pegasus spyware »
Enlarge / A report this week indicates that the problem of high-caliber spyware is far more widespread than previously feared. reader comments 74 with 54 posters participating Share this story The shadowy world of private spyware has long caused alarm in cybersecurity circles, as authoritarian governments have repeatedly been caught targeting the smartphones of activists,… Read More: An explosive spyware report shows limits of iOS, Android security »
reader comments 43 with 39 posters participating Share this story Three dozen journalists had their iPhones hacked in July and August using what at the time was an iMessage zero-day exploit that didn’t require the victims to take any action to be infected, researchers said. The exploit and the payload it installed were developed and… Read More: Zero-click iMessage zero-day used to hack the iPhones of 36… »