Pegasus snooping scandal: Apple sues Israel firm for targeting users

Tech giant Apple has sued Israel's NSO Group that makes Pegasus spyware. The suit seeks to block NSO Group from targeting the over one billion iPhones in circulation.

The Israeli company is in the eye of the storm since the Pegasus snopping scandal broke out across the world, including India.

Reports said that tens of thousands of activists, journalists and politicians were listed as potential targets of its Pegasus spyware.

in its lawsuit, Apple has said that NSO Group employees are “amoral 21st century mercenaries". They have created highly sophisticated cyber-surveillance machinery that invites routine and flagrant abuse, it added.

Apple said Pegasus spyware had been used to attack a small number of Apple customers worldwide.

Also watch: Pegasus-maker NSO Group put on US trade blacklist: reports

NSO Group has broadly denied wrongdoing and said its products have been used by governments to prevent terrorism and crime.

It's the latest blow to the hacking firm, which was recently blacklisted by the US Commerce Department and is currently being sued by social media giant Facebook.

Security researchers have found Pegasus being used around the world to break into the phones of human rights activists, journalists and even members of the Catholic clergy.

Pegasus infiltrates phones to vacuum up personal and location data and surreptitiously controls the smartphone's microphones and cameras. Researchers have found several examples of NSO Group tools using so-called “zero click” exploits that infect targeted mobile phones without any user interaction.