Apple Wins Early Victory Against Spyware Maker NSO Group in Court

Apple has dealt a blow against spyware maker NSO Group and the Israeli firm's efforts to move Apple's lawsuit against it to its home country. Apple in November 2021 sued the group and its parent company with the aim of holding it accountable for targeting Apple users with spyware used for surveillance purposes.

apple security banner
Judge Donato denied NSO's motion to dismiss Apple's case "in all respects," and rejected the group's arguments that Apple should be required to bring its lawsuit to Israel, deciding instead that the case will proceed in the United States.

The court also ruled that Apple had adequately alleged that NSO violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and California’s Unfair Competition Law, breached its contract with Apple, and that NSO unjustly enriched itself at the expense of Apple and its users.

In the lawsuit, Apple offers up information on how NSO Group infiltrated the devices of iPhone owners and how it utilized the Pegasus spyware to do so. Apple is asking for a permanent injunction that would ban NSO Group from using Apple software, services, or devices.

An Apple spokesperson said the victory meant that Apple could proceed in U.S. court to hold NSO accountable and continue to protect Apple's users, products, and infrastructure from hacker groups like NSO.

NSO Group created invasive spyware known as "Pegasus" that was sold to various world governments and was used to access the devices of journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists.

Apple has been working on fixing exploits and has addressed major Pegasus-related hacks in updates to its software since iOS 14.6. In addition to filing a lawsuit against NSO Group, Apple plans to contribute $10 million to organizations pursuing cybersurveillance research and advocacy.

"State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability," said Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi in 2021. "That needs to change."

NSO will have to answer Apple's complaint in a U.S. court by February 14, 2024.

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
Generic iPhone 17 Feature With Full Width Dynamic Island

Latest iPhone 17 Series CAD Images in Line With Redesign Rumors

Friday February 28, 2025 2:51 am PST by
Apple is expected to embrace a new camera system design for some models in its upcoming iPhone 17 series, and the latest purported CAD images don't deviate from what we have been hearing lately about Apple's new lineup. If you do not like the sound of an iPhone with a Google Pixel-style camera bar, look away now. Seasoned leaker Sonny Dickson shared the following images in a post on X...
iphone 16e usb c feature

Apple Provides Reason for iPhone 16e's Lack of MagSafe

Friday February 28, 2025 4:39 am PST by
Apple has offered a reason why the iPhone 16e doesn't include MagSafe, one of the more notable omissions from its latest entry-level smartphone. According to Apple representatives who spoke to Daring Fireball's John Gruber, MagSafe is not included in the iPhone 16e because "most people in the iPhone 16e's target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging...
apple intelligence black

These New Apple Intelligence Features Are Coming in iOS 18.4

Friday February 28, 2025 3:17 pm PST by
iOS 18.4 was supposed to bring new Apple Intelligence Siri features, but Apple ended up needing to pull those capabilities from the update to continue testing. There are fewer new Apple Intelligence additions now, but there are still some new features that will make the update worth installing when it comes out in April. Priority Notifications Apple introduced Priority Notifications back at ...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Rumored to Include These New Features for Your iPhone

Saturday March 1, 2025 11:00 am PST by
iOS 19 is still around three months away from being unveiled, but there are plenty of rumors about the upcoming update. Below, we recap iOS 19 rumors so far. Redesigned Camera App A leak earlier this year allegedly revealed a redesigned Camera app coming with iOS 19. On his YouTube channel Front Page Tech in January, Jon Prosser shared a video showing what the new Camera app will...
cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
airpods pro purple

Here's When AirPods Pro 3 Are Rumored to Launch

Monday February 24, 2025 9:14 am PST by
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year. The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time. Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
apple c1

How Fast is Apple's First-Ever 5G Modem? The Results Are Surprising

Friday February 28, 2025 10:08 am PST by
iPhone 16e reviews are now out, and Apple's custom-designed C1 modem has been put to the test. The results so far are quite surprising, as the C1's speeds are not as slow compared to Qualcomm modems as originally expected. While the C1 does not support ultra-fast mmWave 5G in the U.S., it appears to offer comparable 5G performance to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X71 modem found in the iPhone 16,...

Top Rated Comments

arkitect Avatar
15 months ago
I don't usually cheer on Apple Inc with their legal battles, but this is one where I want to see Apple wipe the floor with their opponent.
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AgeOfSpiracles Avatar
15 months ago

This feels like the craziness of suing gun manufacturers for murder.

Go after the user, not the tool. There are legal applications for the software. Further, if governments are buying it, then they feel, for better or worse, that it would be legal for law enforcement.

Going after the manufacturer seems a legal stretch. I’d be surprised to see how the courts view this because you know it’s going to be appealed either way.
They make a tool with a specific purpose of violating privacy and stealing private information, and sell it to known bad actors. Their business model necessarily leads to kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, and murder. They knowingly profit from this. So cry me a river. If a pharma company intentionally makes a profit at the expense of innocent people, they should be held accountable when it ruins lives and whole communites. If a tobacco company intentionally lies and obfuscates the health effects of smoking, the should be held accountable when it starts affecting people who don't even smoke. If a gun maker intentionally markets to insecure and violent gravy seals, they should be held accountable when classrooms get massacred.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Will Co Avatar
15 months ago

I don't usually cheer on Apple Inc with their legal battles, but this is one where I want to see Apple wipe the floor with their opponent.
Couldn't agree more. All power to their elbow.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
koil Avatar
15 months ago
NSO group wouldn't be in business if these giant corporations actually paid reasonable bounties to white hat hackers for serious vulnerabilites.

For example, for a "Zero-click kernel code execution with persistence and kernel PAC bypass" Apple pays $100K to $1M. If you bring something like that to NSO group (or other even shadier operators) you can easily get ten times that amount.

Sure, $100K to $1M isn't peanuts by any means, but only so many of those chains exist and finding them is hard work and is often based on months of work from several talented researchers.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
latergator116 Avatar
15 months ago
There’s a great podcast I just listened to about NSO and Pegasus and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. It’s called “Shoot the Messenger: Espionage, Murder & Pegasus Spyware”
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
apparatchik Avatar
15 months ago
I have two nationalities and in both countries Pegasus has been used against independent journalists and the political opposition. Even artists have been targeted.

One of said countries is descending into a dictatorship, Pegasus has been used and abused for the most perverse means against civil society and democracy. I really hope Apple wins this lawsuit.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)