WASHINGTON - A federal jury in California handed Israel's NSO Group a $168 million penalty for infiltrating WhatsApp servers to target Meta chat platform users on behalf of foreign spy agencies. This case concludes a six-year conflict between the American social media giant and the surveillance company, offering a rare glimpse into the world of cyberespionage.
NSO charged European government clients a "standard price" of $7 million between 2018 and 2020 to hack 15 devices simultaneously. Additional services for hacking devices outside the client's country cost up to $2 million, as disclosed by Sarit Bizinsky Gil, NSO's vice president of global business operations.
"It is a highly sophisticated product," stated Meta lawyer Antonio Perez during the trial. "And it carries a hefty price tag."
NSO was responsible for breaching thousands of devices from 2018 to 2020, according to Tamir Gazneli, NSO's vice president of research and development. Gazneli defended the company's tools as intelligence-gathering instruments, not spyware, despite Meta's claims during the trial.
The CIA and FBI paid NSO a total of $7.6 million, court records revealed. Previous reports from The New York Times indicated the agencies' involvement with NSO, but the trial quantified the financial transactions.
Despite the lawsuit, NSO continued to target Meta's infrastructure, according to court documents filed by Meta's legal team last month.
The filing seeks a permanent injunction against NSO, citing ongoing and potential harm to Meta, its platform, and users.
Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by David Gregorio