Israeli spyware firm NSO hit with $167 million judgment for hacking 1,400 WhatsApp users, setting a major legal precedent.

A federal jury in the Northern District of California has ordered Israeli spyware maker NSO Group to pay $167.25 million in punitive damages plus about $444,700 in compensatory damages to WhatsApp and its parent company Meta, after finding the firm liable for enabling the hacking of roughly 1,400 WhatsApp users’ devices in 2019. The case centered on NSO’s Pegasus spyware, which exploited WhatsApp’s video calling feature as a delivery channel, allowing “zero‑click” infections that did not require targets to interact with malicious content. Many of the affected accounts belonged to civil society actors, including journalists, human rights defenders, and diplomats. The judgment caps a six‑year legal battle that began when WhatsApp sued NSO in 2019 for using its servers to deliver Pegasus and unlawfully accessing its infrastructure. A December 2024 ruling had already found NSO liable for hacking and breach of contract, and the May 2025 jury verdict dealt specifically with how much the company must pay in damages. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International described the award—over $167 million in total punitive damages—as a “momentous win” against spyware abuse, emphasizing that court filings showed NSO itself installs and extracts data from infected devices, rather than merely providing tools to government clients as it has claimed. Legally, the case is viewed as a major precedent for holding commercial spyware vendors directly accountable in U.S. courts for surveillance abuses carried out via their tools. Privacy advocates note that the size and punitive nature of the award is intended to deter similar firms and signal that exploiting U.S. tech platforms and users can carry substantial financial and legal consequences. NSO has said it will explore appeals and continues to argue that Pegasus is used responsibly by government customers for law‑enforcement and counterterrorism purposes, but the ruling adds to mounting regulatory and reputational pressure on the company, which is already blacklisted by the U.S. government and under scrutiny in multiple jurisdictions.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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