WhatsApp finally forces Pegasus spyware maker to share its secret code

This is the best summary I could come up with:

WhatsApp will soon be granted access to explore the "full functionality" of the NSO Group's Pegasus spyware—sophisticated malware the Israeli Ministry of Defense has long guarded as a "highly sought" state secret, The Guardian reported.

WhatsApp suing the NSO, Ars noted at the time, was "an unprecedented legal action" that took "aim at the unregulated industry that sells sophisticated malware services to governments around the world."

Initially, the NSO sought to block all discovery in the lawsuit, "due to various US and Israeli restrictions," but that blanket request was denied.

As the court considered each side's motions to compel discovery, a US district judge, Phyllis Hamilton, rejected the NSO's argument that it should only be required to hand over information about Pegasus' installation layer.

In the same order, Hamilton also denied the NSO's request to compel WhatsApp to share its post-complaint communications with the Citizen Lab, which served as a third-party witness in the case to support WhatsApp's argument that "Pegasus is misused by NSO’s customers against ‘civil society.’"

Hamilton quoted a court filing from the NSO that curiously noted: "If plaintiffs would agree to withdraw from their case Citizen Lab’s contention that Pegasus was used against members of ‘civil society’ rather than to investigate terrorism and serious crime, there would be much less need for this discovery.”

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Two companies I hate, battling it out!

This seems like a win for "civil society". Putting a dent in NSO's secrecy so software makers can patch against it would be a win as long as Whatsapp (Meta) publish their findings publicly and not keep it for themselves to be the next biggest threat to "civil society". As if they haven't done enough civil damage and spying themselves already.

I stopped letting governments install Pegasus spyware on my phone as part of the BDS campaign.

This is why you hear about right wing authoritarians gaining ground worldwide. When you have software like this it’s easy to monitor and shutdown any criticism.