City
Epaper

Israeli spyware firm sues Facebook over blocked accounts

By IANS | Updated: November 27, 2019 11:00 IST

Eight employees of Israeli spyware company NSO Group that sells controversial Pegasus software to help governments snoop on people have sued Facebook demanding that the social networking giant must unblock their accounts on its platform, as well as Instagram.

Open in App

The plaintiffs asked the Tel Aviv District Court to order Facebook to unblock the accounts until the issues are decided in court, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

They alleged that Facebook violated its agreement with them by blocking the accounts arbitrarily and without notice, and without providing a reason.

Facebook said in a statement that it had disabled "relevant accounts" after attributing a "sophisticated cyber attack" to NSO Group and its employees.

Facebook sued NSO Group in October for creating the Pegasus software that allowed its clients to spy on communications of 1,400 WhatsApp users, including some in India, that involved journalists, diplomats and civil society members.

aceThe court made it clear, in two separate instances, the prohibition against Facebook's blocking of user accounts for a violation that is not a material violation or without proof of the agreement's violation. Facebook nevertheless overtly flouts court rulings and persists in its actions as if nothing happened,a the lawsuit said.

In India, the Pegasus controversy snowballed into a major political one.

With the government accusing WhatsApp of not informing it on time and with details that personal data of Ind was compromised by spyware, a spokesperson for the Facebook-owned instant messaging app said it regrets that it did not meet the "Governments expectations for proactive engagement on these issues."

The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) had published a vulnerability note on May 17 advising countermeasures to users about a vulnerability in WhatsApp, according to Union Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

WhatsApp reported an incident to the CERT-In on May 20, Prasad said.

The IT Minister said WhatsApp has informed the government that the spyware Pegasus was developed by the NSO Group which had used the spyware to attempt to reach the mobile phones of a possible 1,400 users globally that includes 121 users from India.

( With inputs from IANS )

Tags: Ravi Shankar PrasadNso GroupPegasusindiaTel Aviv District Court
Open in App

Related Stories

NationalCOVID-19 Update: Mumbai Cases Drop Sharply; India’s Active Tally Drops By 428

CricketIndia vs India A Intra-Squad LIVE Streaming: When and Where To Watch Intra-Squad Match on TV and Online?

Navi MumbaiNavi Mumbai News: Border Crackdown Forces Indian Woman to Part With Children and Husband Amid Citizenship Chaos

NationalAir India Plane Crash in Gujarat: Could This Be One of India’s Deadliest Air Disasters? Here Are Top 5 Worst Aviation Tragedies

HealthCOVID-19: What is XFG? New Recombinant Variant Detected With Rapid Spread Potential

टेकमेनिया Realted Stories

TechnologyAir India to cut international flights on wide body aircraft by 15 pc

TechnologyKarnataka security guard held for uploading nude videos, 13,500 obscene images found on phone

TechnologySAIL beefs up Indian Navy’s INS Arnala with special steel

TechnologyFM Sitharaman urges fintechs to look beyond cities, tap into rural India's potential

TechnologyMedia report on RBI scrutiny unverified and malicious: Standard Chartered Bank