NSO Group, the organization behind the Pegasus spyware, has been found liable in a lawsuit brought by Meta’s WhatsApp over attacks on about 1,400 devices, as reported by The Record. NSO Group is liable for charges of violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,

A federal judge in California has agreed with WhatsApp that the NSO Group, the Israeli cybersurveillance firm behind the Pegasus spyware, had hacked into its systems by sending malware through its servers to thousands of its users' phones.

In a major legal victory, messaging app WhatsApp won a five-year-old case against NSO Group, the creator of the infamous Pegasus spyware. A U.S. judge ruled that the Israeli-based NSO had violated key American laws by hacking into WhatsApp systems and targeting over a thousand phones.

The federal judge in California also granted summary judgment to WhatsApp on its claims NSO engaged in computer fraud through spyware embedded in the app's messages.

The NSO Group violated federal legislation against unauthorised access to computers, networks and other digital information, said the court.

The ruling came five years after the Meta-owned WhatsApp sued the NSO Group in the US District Court of North California in October 2019.

WhatsApp wins a major legal case against NSO Group over Pegasus spyware, marking a key step in holding spyware companies accountable for unlawful surveillance of activists, journalists, and officials

Messaging giant WhatsApp won a landmark ruling Friday against the best-known maker of spyware when a federal judge in California ruled that NSO Group had hacked into the Meta unit’s systems by sending malicious software through its servers to more than a thousand targeted phones.

WhatsApp has prevailed against Israeli spyware maker NSO Group in a US lawsuit over NSO’s abuse of the messaging app to infiltrate the phones of journalists, activists and dissidents with its Pegasus hacking tool.