Facebook Sues ‘Israeli’ Spy Firm for Exploiting WhatsApp Vulnerability

By Staff, Agencies

Facebook’s chat platform WhatsApp launched a lawsuit against an ‘Israeli’ cyber spy firm, ironically claiming it helped governments in over a dozen countries [other than the US] to access users’ private data.

Filed in a US federal court on Tuesday, the new suit accuses a Tel Aviv-based tech developer, NSO Group, of providing the tools used to hack over 1,400 WhatsApp users earlier this year – most shockingly including “activists, lawyers, journalists and diplomats” – in what the chat service called an “unmistakable pattern of abuse.”

In a passionate statement by a genuinely disturbed spokesperson, the US-based company called for a permanent injunction barring NSO from accessing its computer systems, as well as those of Facebook, its parent firm.

Though its complaint singles out Mexico, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, WhatsApp says NSO worked with ‘repressive’ governments and ‘undemocratic’ intelligence agencies in 20 countries to facilitate the hacks, which exploited the platform’s video chat service to secretly access devices.