Apple announced this Tuesday (23) that it has filed a lawsuit against Israeli spy software company NSO Group and its parent OSY Technologies on charges of illegally monitoring users of the US company’s products.
Apple said it is also seeking to prevent the NSO from using any of the US company’s software, services or devices to prevent further cases of abuse.
Apple is the latest in a series of companies and governments to sue the NSO, the maker of the “Pegasus” hacking tool, which human rights groups say has been used against activists and journalists. Earlier this month, US officials placed the company on a trading blacklist. The NSO also faces other actions or is criticized by Microsoft, Facebook, Alphabet and Cisco Systems.
The NSO is accused of circumventing the security of these companies’ products and selling these techniques to governments in the form of hacking tools for electronic systems.
The NSO has not commented on the matter, but has previously stated that it only sells its products to authorities and spy agencies and that it takes steps to prevent abuse.
In the lawsuit, Apple claims that NSO tools were used in “coordinated efforts in 2021 to target and attack customers” of the company and that “US citizens have been spied on by NSO spyware.”
Apple claims the NSO created more than 100 fake company user accounts to promote the attacks.
The US company said it has so far seen no evidence that NSO products have been used against Apple devices that use the iOS 15 operating system, the latest version of the company’s mobile platform.
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