Apple has just filed a lawsuit against Israel’s NSO Group and its parent company to hold it accountable for the surveillance and targeting of Apple users while providing new information on how the group infected victims’ devices with its Pegasus spyware.
For those who aren’t aware, NSO Group creates state-sponsored surveillance technology that allows its highly targeted spyware to surveil its victims. These attacks are only aimed at a very small number of users, and they impact people across multiple platforms, including iOS and Android.
Apple is also seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices.
“State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.
“Apple devices are the most secure consumer hardware on the market — but private companies developing state-sponsored spyware have become even more dangerous. While these cybersecurity threats only impact a very small number of our customers, we take any attack on our users very seriously, and we’re constantly working to strengthen the security and privacy protections in iOS to keep all our users safe.”
Apple has also announced it will also be contributing $10 million, as well as any damages from the lawsuit, to organizations pursuing cyber surveillance research and advocacy.
