Apple has filed a petition to “voluntarily” drop its lawsuit against commercial spyware vendor NSO Group, citing a changing risk landscape that could lead to the exposure of critical “threat analysis” information.
There was development reported for the first time writes The Washington Post on Friday.
The iPhone maker said its efforts, combined with those of other industry representatives and national governments to combat the rise of commercial spyware, had “significantly weakened” the perpetrators.
“At the same time, unfortunately, other attackers have emerged in the commercial spyware industry,” the company said. “It is because of this combination of factors that Apple is now seeking a voluntary dismissal of this case.”
“While Apple continues to believe that its claims are valid, it has also determined that continuing to pursue this matter could put vital security information at risk.”
an apple originally filed lawsuit against the Israeli company in November 2021 in an attempt to hold it accountable for illegally targeting users with the Pegasus tracking tool.
He described NSO Group, a subsidiary of Q Cyber Technologies Limited, as “amoral 21st-century mercenaries who have created highly sophisticated cyber surveillance techniques that are subject to routine and flagrant abuse.”
Earlier this January, a federal judge denied NSO Group’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the company “is based in Israel and Apple should have sued them there,” with the court saying that “the CFAA’s anti-hacking purpose conflates the allegations Apple to a T, and NSO has not shown otherwise.”
In its voluntary dismissal motion, Apple said three main contributing factors were the risk that the threat intelligence it developed to protect users from spyware attacks could be exposed, citing a report by The Guardian from July 25, 2024.
British newspaper revealed that Israeli officials seized documents from NSO Group in July 2020 in an apparent attempt to stop the release of information about the notorious hacking tool as part of the company’s ongoing legal battle with Meta-owned WhatsApp, which filed a similar lawsuit in 2019.
“The seizures were part of an unusual legal maneuver by Israel to block disclosure of information about Pegasus, which the government said would cause ‘serious diplomatic and security damage’ to the country,” The Guardian reported. noted at that time.
Apple also cited the changing dynamics of the commercial spyware industry and the proliferation of various spyware companies as reasons, as well as the possibility of disclosure to third parties of “information that Apple uses to combat spyware, while the defendants and others create significant obstacles to obtaining effective means”.
The development comes as the Atlantic Council publicized that the individuals behind some of the spyware vendors in Israel, Italy and India who have come under the scanner in order to allow authoritarian regimes to spy on human rights defenders, opposition leaders and journalists, they have tried to rename them, establish new ones or carry out a strategic transfer of jurisdiction.
example, Understoodnow a sanctioned company behind Predator spyware, new infrastructure has emerged due to its continued use by likely clients in countries such as Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Saudi Arabia.
“Predator operators have significantly improved their infrastructure, adding layers of sophistication to avoid detection,” – cyber security company Insikt Group said.
“The new infrastructure includes an additional layer in its multi-tiered delivery system that anonymizes customer transactions, making it even more difficult to identify countries using spyware.”
