Why Apple will sue the Nso Group by Marco Dell’Aguzzo

Apple will sue Nso Group, the Israeli spyware company Pegasus, for spying on iPhone users. Here are the details and reasons

Apple is suing Israeli spyware company NSO Group for targeting iPhone users with its own spying system.

THE NSO-PEGASUS CASE, IN BRIEF

The NSO Group's Pegasus software, in fact, can infect both Apple's iOS devices and those using an Android operating system, allowing the extraction of messages, photos and emails, the recording of phone calls and the secret activation of microphones and cameras. NSO states that Pegasus is being provided to human rights-abiding governments solely for the monitoring of terrorists and criminals; however, a large international investigation - called the Pegasus Project - showed how the software was instead used to spy on journalists, activists, entrepreneurs and various politicians. THE MOVE OF THE UNITED STATES, THE CRITICISM OF COMPANIES The United States has recently blacklisted the NSO Group, limiting its ability to have contacts with American companies and technologies, based on its own supply of Pegasus to governments for illicit purposes. NSO Group has also been criticized by many US technology companies such as Microsoft, Meta (formerly Facebook), Alphabet (Google) and Cisco.

. THE CAUSE OF APPLE

In a press release, Apple states that the lawsuit - to be held in California: the company's headquarters is in Cupertino - aims to make NSO Group and its parent company, OSY Technologies, "responsible for the surveillance and targeting of Apple users. ". The text also states that "to prevent further abuse and harm to its users, Apple is also asking for a permanent injunction to prohibit NSO Group from using any Apple software, service or device." Apple accused NSO Group of creating over 100 fake Apple ID credentials to carry out cyber-intrusions. He points out that the company's servers were not compromised by NSO, but manipulated. Apple will donate $ 10 million, in addition to the proceeds from the lawsuit, to several cyber surveillance associations including Citizen Lab, the University of Toronto group that first discovered NSO's practices.

THE MOTIVATIONS

As technology expert James Clayton explained to the BBC, through the NSO lawsuit, Apple wants to reiterate the importance of privacy for the company in front of consumers: it is a point on which it insists a lot to sell its devices. Apple, Clayton continues, therefore wants to state that there is no distinction between cyber-criminals and government-sponsored espionage groups, and that no motivation is valid for violating the privacy of an Apple user. From a legal point of view, then, it is much easier to sue a private company than to the governments that allegedly abused the Pegasus spyware.