From the Liveblog of
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Report: Israel seized damaging documents from NSO to prevent subpoena for US court case
Israel’s government seized key files from cyber-hacking firm NSO Group in 2020, in an apparent bid to prevent them from being subpoenaed for a US court case against the company, The Guardian reports.
The paper says documents leaked to it showed Jerusalem was concerned that information within those documents would cause “serious diplomatic and security damage” to Israel.
The lawsuit was brought against NSO by Meta-owned WhatsApp, in relation to its Pegasus spyware that enables governments to hack into virtually any phone and access its data, microphone and cameras. WhatsApp accuses NSO of hacking its servers for the purpose of accessing users’ phones.
The Guardian claims the Israeli seizure of documents from NSO was coordinated with the company and directly intended to thwart WhatsApp’s efforts to obtain them as part of the discovery process in the case. It also says the government hid that effort with the aid of a court-issued gag order on the details of its actions.
