New Delhi: Apple has sued Israeli spyware maker NSO Group and its parent company, as it aims to stop it from using any of its technology and prevent any harm to iPhone users globally. It comes weeks after the revelation that the NSO group was spying on heads of state, activists, politicians and journalists in several countries, including India.
Apple has filed a lawsuit against NSO Group and its parent company for holding it accountable for monitoring and targeting Apple users. The complaint provides new information about how the NSO Group infected victims’ devices with its Pegasus spyware, according to the iPhone maker.
“State-sponsored actors such as the NSO group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. This needs to change,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said in a statement late Tuesday.
“Apple devices are some of the most secure consumer hardware on the market – but private companies developing state-sponsored spyware have become even more dangerous. Although these cybersecurity threats only affect a small number of our customers, we do not take any risks on our users. We take the attack very seriously, and we are constantly working to strengthen the security and privacy protections in iOS to keep all of our users safe,” Federighi said.
Earlier this month, United States (US) officials blacklisted the Israeli company NSO on the allegation that the company enabled foreign governments to carry out international repression, a report by AFP news agency said. . The US has also put NSO on the trade blacklist. The move comes after the department ruled that the NSO group “engaged in activities that are contrary to the interests of national security or the foreign policy of the United States”.
Pegasus spyware is reportedly designed to give governments access to phones’ microphones, cameras and other data on both the iPhone and Android.
Several reports said that the spyware is allegedly designed to be able to infect the phone without requiring any action from the user and without leaving any trace.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, the controversial NSO group said it would work to reverse the US decision to blacklist it. The NSO Group issued a statement saying that the company was “disappointed” with the decision.
“Our technologies support US national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime,” the company said.
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