Pegasus Project, a investigative journalistic endeavour undertaken by 17 media organisation, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, revealed that the Pegasus spyware was used on ministers, opposition leaders, political strategist and tacticians, journalists, activists, minority leaders, supreme court judges, religious leaders, administrators like Election Commissioners and heads of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The justices turned away NSO's appeal of a lower court's decision that the lawsuit could move forward. NSO had argued that it is immune from being sued because it was acting as an agent for unidentified foreign governments when it installed the "Pegasus" spyware.
In one notorious case, NSO spyware was used - allegedly by the Saudi government - to target the inner circle of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi shortly before he was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
What is Pegasus sypware?
Pegasus gives its government customers -- which have allegedly included Mexico, Hungary, Morocco and India -- near-complete access to a target's device, including their personal data, photos, messages and location.
Why is WhatsApp suing NSO's Pegasus spyware?
Meta-owned messaging service WhatsApp sued the Israeli technology firm, accusing it of targeting approximately 1,400 devices with spyware to steal information from people using the app.
WhatsApp in 2019 sought an injunction and damages, accusing it of accessing WhatsApp servers without permission six months earlier to install the Pegasus software on victims' mobile devices.
WhatsApp vs Pegasus
The WhatsApp lawsuit said Pegasus was designed to be remotely installed to hijack devices using the Android, iOS, and BlackBerry operating systems.
NSO argued that it only markets Pegasus to governments and that it offered authorities a method to carry out legitimate criminal investigations on WhatsApp's encrypted messaging service.
NSO said that Pegasus helps law enforcement and intelligence agencies fight crime and protect national security and that its technology is intended to help catch terrorists, pedophiles and hardened criminals.
Many nations, including the United States, rely on private contractors, and the question of when these firms can seek immunity from lawsuits has significant foreign policy implications, NSO also told the Supreme Court.
Apple in 2021 also filed a suit against NSO, accusing the Israeli firm of targeting iPhones.
The Apple suit followed shortly after revelations that tens of thousands of activists, journalists and politicians were listed as potential targets of the firm's Pegasus spyware.
