Israel's top cyber-intelligence firm, "NSO Group", famously known for Pegasus spyware, that can view the contents of any device, turn on the camera, and listen in on live communications almost undetected, was ordered to pay $167 million dollars to Meta (Facebook) for a 2019 hacking campaign that zero day exploited a (reported) 1,400 WhatsApp users in targeted attacks...it was condemned by Snowden and he calls for its eradication, as well as other projects of it's kind. The lawsuit filed by Meta was on the basis of NSO Group violating their terms & conditions when using the platform.
The conclusion of the suit ended recently with the Jury siding with Meta & awarding the $167Mil payout. Victims will not get any of this money, but NSO Group pledged to donate funds to relevant organizations. This lawsuit only pertains to violations of Meta's platform, none of the other Operating System's breached or services used for global LE surveillance.
NSO Group sells it's spyware to many nations across the world, including the US for surveillance purposes. They have newer projects that are so wrapped up in secrecy you could never know. They have exploits on most operating systems and devices, including the Windows, Linux (open source), IOS/Mac OS, and Android. Similar to how Israel's digital forensics firm "Cellebrite" has access to all the latest hardware exploits to extract data (evidence) for Law Enforcement device seizures and border checkpoint device cloning, even the latest iPhone models. Israel strongly denies espionage, and touts it's skilled and brilliant experts on sourcing these exploits, paying as the highest bidder. Despite NSO's offices being located in the same building as Apple in Israel, it's "coincidence".
Too much to type out into one post, the article is a goldmine of info:
techcrunch.com
This is a huge blow to Israel, how will they recoup from this financially?