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Photo: JOEL SAGET / AFP
The Israeli developer company behind the surveillance software Pegasus is coming under legal pressure: Apple has filed a lawsuit against the company.
The US company wants to go to court to prevent the NSO Group from using any Apple devices and software.
In the lawsuit published on Tuesday, an unspecified "reparation" for spying on users is called for because this violated US law.
NSO has been heavily criticized for months.
In mid-July, an international journalist consortium reported that, along with Pegasus, opposition members and reporters had also been spied on with suspicion.
Traces of attacks were discovered on dozens of smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, their family members and business people.
NSO countered that Pegasus was "only sold to law enforcement and intelligence agencies by audited governments with the sole aim of saving lives by preventing crime and acts of terror".
Most recently, Hungary, ruled by Viktor Obran more and more authoritarian, admitted the use of Pegasus.
The weak point should be closed
But the explanations are not enough for many in the USA.
At the beginning of November, the US government put NSO on its sanctions list.
There is evidence that spy software was delivered to governments that they used to maliciously monitor government officials, journalists and scientists, among others.
Apple emphasized that NSO had exploited a now closed software vulnerability to attack "a small number" of users of the group's devices.
"The NSO Group and its customers use the immense resources and potential of nation states to carry out cyberattacks in a very targeted manner that give them access to the microphone, camera and other sensitive data on Apple and Android devices," it said .
WhatsApp has been suing NSO for years.
The chat service belonging to the Facebook group Meta accuses the company of illegally exploiting its systems to monitor users.
beb / dpa
