Apple lawsuit against Pegasus

Apple lawsuit against Pegasus

Pegasus

In 2011, NSO, a company specializing in developing spyware and electronic security systems, developed a spyware program called "Pegasus". Pegasus is a malware that infects iPhones and Android devices. The company that makes the program claims that it only sells its tools to military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies in 40 countries, according to the Guardian. NSO also says that it strictly checks the human rights records of its customers before allowing them to use its spyware tools.

But according to a report published by the Guardian in 2021, it was able to access the identities of a group of phone numbers infected with Pegasus and found that the numbers included a wide range of people who had no connection to crime; as the newspaper found on the list political activists, journalists, lawyers, ministers, heads of state and many other important figures who had no connection to any crimes.

The NSO client can take control of the phone once it is infected with Pegasus; It can extract a person's messages, calls, photos, emails, secretly activate cameras or microphones, and read the content of encrypted messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.

For this reason, Apple, Meta, and several other companies have filed lawsuits against NSO; as the company was involved, with a license from the Israeli government, in selling its spyware to individuals or entities that use it in illegal activities outside the scope of national security and combating crimes. The company also exploited security vulnerabilities in iPhones and Meta services without the knowledge of the victims, and without obtaining any permission or authorization from Apple, Meta, and other companies that the application exploited to spy on users.

This means that the Israeli government closely monitors who this technology goes to, and controls this by granting or denying export licenses; so the lawsuit here is not against NSO alone, but against an entire country.

But in a surprising decision; Apple dropped its case against the company after three years; The company explained its withdrawal by fearing that the information it might have to provide in court, such as how it discovered hacks and spyware, could be inadvertently used by NSO or its competitors to enhance their technologies or improve their hacking and spying methods.

Apple’s attempts to protect its users from the infamous Pegasus!

According to an article in The Guardian in July 2024, documents were leaked stating that the government had seized documents related to the spyware, Pegasus, from NSO in an attempt to prevent the company from complying with WhatsApp’s demands in a US court to hand over information about this advanced technology. Officials also asked the Israeli court to keep the matter secret because those documents contained information that could cause serious diplomatic and security damage if it reached external parties, such as the US government.

Apple’s response to the leak was neither denial nor confirmation, but it expressed concern about the difficulty of obtaining the information and documents required to discover the evidence necessary to support its case against NSO; as the Israeli government’s action would hinder its ability to obtain vital evidence. For its part; Israeli officials did not deny the authenticity of the documents published by the Guardian!

In the legal papers submitted as part of its lawsuit, Apple warned of a dangerous scenario. It explained that if it provided its internal documents to NSO’s lawyers, which reveal the mechanisms for detecting breaches, these “lawyers themselves may become vulnerable to hacking.” Apple stressed the importance of the “threat intelligence” it collects. This information, which includes data about security risks and potential cyber attacks on its systems and devices, is used to protect all Apple users around the world. The company stressed that any disclosure of this sensitive information, even under the most stringent security measures, would jeopardize the integrity of this strategic data; which could negatively affect the security of its users.

Over the three years that Apple filed the lawsuit, Apple has intensified its efforts in the field of cybersecurity. The company has succeeded in developing an integrated system of advanced technologies and tools, specifically designed to monitor and identify any malicious or suspicious activity that threatens its devices. Apple’s strategy in building its defense capabilities has been characterized by complete secrecy; The company has been able to detect and thwart many of the infrastructures used in cyber attacks on its devices, including advanced malware and spyware.

The continuous development of Apple's protection technologies has allowed it to warn its vulnerable customers when it detects an attempt to install spyware on their devices. This has led many customers to turn to the media, which can find out why they are being targeted, as well as international human rights organizations and Amnesty International, which can analyze phones and identify the methods used in hacking or spying. The joint audit has led to major scandals in several countries.

Apple has added a "Lockdown Mode" option to its users, which works to restrict some of the phone's functions, which in turn works to reduce the attack surface that advanced and specifically targeted spyware can exploit. Apple announced that there have been no successful commercial espionage attacks against the iPhone in locked mode.

Lockdown mode is designed for a very small number of individuals who may be subject to personal targeting.

Apple's withdrawal took everyone by surprise; but did Apple find it a pointless legal battle? It is almost impossible to get hold of documents that incriminate NSO once the government has them, and you will not be able to talk about the steps it took to prove that Pegasus hacked the iPhone because it could be exploited? Or are there threats or some kind of systematic and ongoing blackmail behind the scenes?