The names of NSO Lawyers, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan as spyware agents behind 2019 WhatsApp Hacks

The governments of Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan were among other things behind the 2019 piracy campaign that targeted more than 1,200 WhatsApp users with NSO GROP spyware, according to a lawyer working in the Israeli spyware maker.

During a listening session between WhatsApp and NSO Group last Thursday, NSO Group Joe Akroterianakis lawyer specifically naming the three governments as agents who use spyware, According to a copy of the session It was obtained by Techcrunch this week.

This is the first time that they publicly assured NSO Group representatives of those (or) of the spyware manufacturers (or they), after years of refusing to recognize or discuss their customers, on the pretext that it is “unable” to do so.

The revelation comes as part of a lawsuit filed by WhatsApp, which is owned by the description in 2019, which The NSO group accused the penetration of about 1,400 WhatsApp users By exploiting the security vulnerability in the systems of application of correspondence between April and May in the same year.

The content of last week’s session was reported by Court news service.

In the case complaint, WhatsApp claimed that there are more than 100 targeted victims working as human rights activists, journalists and “other members of civil society”. Citizen Lab, a digital rights group that has investigated government spyware violations for more than a decade, He said in a report at that time It helped WhatsApp in identifying these victims.

Last week, NSO Group Akroterianakis told the judge that “there is at least eight clients whose names are part of the discovery in this case,” but only three were called during the session.

At the same time, the lawyer also alluded to a list of countries listed in The court document Unlimited last week, Which appears in countries where there were 1223 victims of the espionage programs 2019It is also a list of NSO group customers.

“Pegasus has been licensed to the regions and can only be used in those areas,” said Akroterianakis, referring to NSO Group spyware.

Regardless of Mexico and Uzbekistan, the list of 51 countries in Bahrain, India, Morocco, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which was mentioned by the NSO group lawyer in the session, however, does not appear on the list.

This can be explained by the fact that some NSO group customers can target individuals outside their lands. For example, in 2017, I mentioned the citizen laboratory There was “circumstantial evidence” indicating that one or more agents of the NSO Group’s government in Mexico targeted many individuals, including a well -known Mexican journalist, who was Inside the United States At that time it was targeting.

I arrived at Techcrunch, and a spokesman for the NSO Gil Lainer group rejected the comment. When asked, Lynar did not oppose that Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan were three agents at the time of the WhatsApp spy campaign.

Zayed Alasawi, spokesman for WhatsApp techcrunch, told “the company aspiring to” the next experience to determine the damage, secure a judicial order against NSO to protect WhatsApp and private communication for people. “

Tuesday, In order to pre -trialThe judge who heads the lawsuit said that although NSO Group said that the documents submitted as part of the lawsuit specify “at least four countries as NSO agents”, the company did not confirm that these countries are its customers.

The judge wrote: “The proof record is not transparent in relation to any of the NSO clients responsible for the debate, and therefore (WhatsApp) were unable to discover evidence about whether the examination procedures were followed in relation to these clients.” “Moreover, to the extent that the parties discuss the facts related to customers who have been misused PEGASUS, these facts appear to have come from media reports, not the defendants.”

For years, organizations such as Citizen Lab and Amnesty International have documented the cases in which Pegasus was used to target or penetrate journalists, dissidents and human rights defenders in some countries mentioned in the list of victims, such as Mexicoand Hungaryand Spainand United Arab EmiratesAmong several others.

Techcrunch continued to comment on the embassies of Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan in the United States and we will update the story if we receive a response.