June 8 (Reuters) – Meta said on Monday it is filing a federal court contempt order against Israeli spyware firm NSO Group for violating a permanent injunction that barred it from ever targeting WhatsApp and its users.
The company said its WhatsApp messaging service disrupted new spear phishing attempts linked to NSO, an entity blacklisted by the U.S. government for engaging in activities that are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests.
These attempts were similar to previous “1-click phishing campaigns,” aimed to trick users into clicking malicious links and direct them to external websites, Meta said in a blogpost.
“1-click” is a type of cyberattack where a single click on a malicious link or attachment is sufficient to compromise a victim’s device or account, without requiring them to enter their credentials.
Meta said WhatsApp took down test accounts and groups created by NSO on its platform. NSO did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Last year, a U.S. court ordered NSO to stop targeting Meta’s WhatsApp, a development the spyware company warned could put it out of business.
While the ruling significantly reduced the punitive damages NSO owed Meta to $4 million from an initial $167 million, the injunction itself was seen as a substantial challenge for the company, which faces ongoing accusations of enabling human rights abuses through its Pegasus hacking tool.
Meta said on Monday that last month it was joined by 12 prominent civil rights organizations, a coalition of security researchers, privacy advocates and digital rights experts, who filed their amicus briefs to fight NSO’s appeal against the permanent injunction.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
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