WhatsApp Sues NSO Group Over Exploit Which Attacked Political, Military Leaders in 20 Nations | Tikun Olam |

This takes the attack beyond the realm of individual victims into the realm of state-against-state espionage; a far more serious breach than previously known. Whatsapp also announced that it had reported the incident to the FBI. Facebook has taken further punitive action, deleting all accounts of NSO employees on its platform.

It was previously known that Intelligence agencies in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have used NSO's Pegasus malware, the most powerful product of its kind on the market, to spy on targets they view as threatening the security of their dynastic regimes.

When Whatsapp first announced the NSO attack, I wrote this piece for Jacobin in which I argued that it was imperative for the former company and its corporate parent, Facebook, to sue the Israeli firm and hold it accountable for its behavior. I also encouraged the federal government to assume a role in protecting U.S. companies and the privacy of American citizens who use their technology. It's not surprising that the Trump Justice Department has taken no action against the Israeli firm. But luckily, Whatsapp announced yesterday that it was suing NSO in federal court in San Francisco.

Its leader explained the company's position in this Washington Post op-ed. This takeaway echoes my own views in Jacobin.

In response to the lawsuit, NSO stated:

"In the strongest possible terms, we dispute today's allegations and will vigorously fight them," NSO said in a statement. "The sole purpose of NSO is to provide technology to licensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime."

The WhatsApp Revolution in Lebanon | The New Yorker |

Related reading ...

○ US intervention root cause of crisis in Lebanon: Hezbollah parliamentary bloc

Israel's digital mercenaries unite | Forbes - Oct. 2019 |

Outside of Candiru's apparent relationship with Dilian's spyware enterprises--WiSpear and Intellexa--it has at least one tie to the most controversial of Israel's surveillance providers: NSO Group. That's because two industry sources said the main Candiru financial backer was Founders Group, cofounded by one of the three men who set up NSO, Omri Lavie.

A tangled web ... start-ups to hack into mobiles and with same financial backers and sometimes engineers to setup Interne security. Can't miss, always a hit.

'Sapere aude'