Apple dropped the lawsuit against Pegaz surveillance software maker

marry 17.09.2024, 08:57 AM

Apple has filed a motion to “voluntarily” dismiss its lawsuit against the notorious Pegaz spyware vendor, NSO Group, citing changing dynamics in the commercial spyware industry and the proliferation of different spyware companies, as well as the possibility of revealing critical “threat intelligence” used by Apple to defeat spyware.

The iPhone maker said its efforts, along with those of others in the industry and national governments to combat the rise of commercial spyware, had “significantly weakened” the defendants.

“At the same time, unfortunately, other malicious actors have emerged in the commercial spyware industry,” the company said. “Due to this combination of factors, Apple is now seeking a voluntary dismissal of this case. While Apple continues to believe the merits of its claims, it has also determined that continuing to pursue this case could put vital security information at risk.”

Apple filed a lawsuit against the Israeli company in November 2021 for spying on users using the Pegaz surveillance tool. In the lawsuit, Apple described the NSO Group as “amoral 21st-century mercenaries who have created a highly sophisticated cyber-surveillance machinery that invites routine and flagrant abuse.”

In January, a US federal court rejected NSO Group’s request to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that the company was “based in Israel and Apple should have sued them in that country.”

Israel seized documents from NSO Group in July 2020 in an attempt to stop the handover of information about the infamous hacking tool during the company’s legal dispute with WhatsApp, which filed a similar lawsuit in 2019.

According to the Guardian at the time, “the seizures were part of an unusual legal maneuver by Israel to prevent the disclosure of information about Pegasus, which the government believed would cause ‘serious diplomatic and security damage to the country.’

Photo: zhang kaiyv | Unsplash