WhatsApp recalls US allies targeted by Pegasus..

[sanjay kumar]

The messenger had filed a complaint in 2019 against the publisher of the spyware. Her boss is not surprised by the scale of the espionage affair that came to light last week. He calls on the entire industry to take action against this malware .

Two years ago, WhatsApp discovered that a loophole in its messaging system had been exploited by the Israeli company NSO to infect smartphones with its Pegasus malware.

The American giant then lodged a complaint. His boss Will Cathcart returned to this episode in the columns of the World and the Guardian after the revelations on theProject Pegasus happened all last week.

At the time, the courier found that 1,400 victims had been targeted by this attack in the space of just two weeks.

Among them, profiles that had nothing to do with the criminals or terrorists against whom the tool is supposed to be used.



“There were also government officials, including in senior positions, and allies of the United States, in addition to journalists, human rights activists, and others who had no reason to be supervised in any way, ” recalled Will Cathcart.


The lawsuit is still ongoing
Will Cathcart is doubtful that Pegasus would not have been used against American smartphones.

“It's kind of like saying you build missiles but promise they will only explode in certain parts of the world. Missiles don't work that way. Security vulnerabilities exploited by NSO exist on American phones just as they exist everywhere else in the world. "


WhatsApp's proceedings against NSO are still ongoing. The Israeli company tried to evade prosecution on the pretext that its clients were governments. The court found them wrong. But NSO appealed.


WhatsApp calls on Apple to support the proceedings

In this regard, the courier welcomes the fact that Microsoft, Google and the Internet Association have filed written motions during the trial to support the action against NSO.

But Apple has remained absent subscribers for the moment. Will Cathcart still hopes that the brand will eventually react.


"If you really want to protect the privacy of the users of your service, of course you have to do everything in your power to make it technically secure, but you also have to make noise," he pleads.

Like Edward Snowden , he advocates for a ban on the trade in spyware.