Apple seeks to drop its lawsuit against Israeli spyware-maker NSO Group
Apple has requested that a court dismiss its three-year-old lawsuit against NSO Group, a spyware company. The tech giant argues that it may never be able to obtain crucial files about NSO’s Pegasus surveillance tool and that its own disclosures could potentially benefit NSO and its growing number of competitors.
Joseph Menn for The Washinington Post:
A redacted version of the filing in San Francisco federal court cited a July article in The Guardian, which reported that Israeli officials had taken files from NSO’s headquarters. The newspaper said the officials asked an Israeli court to keep the action secret even from those involved in an earlier, still-pending hacking suit against NSO filed by Meta’s WhatsApp. Israeli ministry of justice communications that were hacked showed that officials were concerned about sensitive information reaching Americans, the newspaper said.
“While Apple takes no position on the truth or falsity of the Guardian story described above, its existence presents cause for concern about the potential for Apple to obtain the discovery it needs,” the iPhone maker wrote in its filing Friday. Israeli officials have not disputed the authenticity of the documents but have denied interfering in the U.S. litigation.
While NSO will likely welcome the suit being dropped, Apple and some of its allies said it came about in part because of NSO’s decline… “NSO Group is on the ropes, no longer the only firm in town, and nowhere near as formidable as they once were,” said Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and a leading critic of the spyware industry…
Another change in the past three years is the strength of Apple’s threat detection, making disclosure of details more valuable to would-be hackers. Apple has built up its capability in secret, and it has repeatedly exposed new hacking infrastructure as hacking companies adjust.
That has allowed Apple to warn more customers when it detects an effort to install spyware on their devices. Many who have received such warnings have gone to the media, which can assess why they might have been targeted, and to digital rights groups including Citizen Lab, Amnesty International and Access Now, which can analyze the phones and learn more about the methods being used. The combined scrutiny has led to major scandals in multiple countries.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s Lockdown Mode is an optional, extreme protection that’s designed for the very few individuals who, because of who they are or what they do, might be personally targeted by some of the most sophisticated digital threats. Most people are never targeted by attacks of this nature.
When Lockdown Mode is enabled, your device won’t function like it typically does. To reduce the attack surface that potentially could be exploited by highly targeted mercenary spyware, certain apps, websites, and features are strictly limited for security and some experiences might not be available at all.
Lockdown Mode is available in iOS 16 or later, iPadOS 16 or later, watchOS 10 or later, and macOS Ventura or later. Additional protections are available in iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS Sonoma.
More info about Lockdown Mode via Apple Support here.
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