U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of California ruled that the Facebook lawsuit filed against NSO Group could proceed.
The judge dismissed NSO Group’s arguments that the company was acting as a contractor to governments, which gave it immunity and allowed its’ clients privacy.
“In light of these divergent doctrines and the lack of controlling authority, there is no compelling reason to extend derivative sovereign immunity to a foreign entity working on behalf of a foreign sovereign,” said Judge Hamilton.
Facebook claims NSO hacked WhatsApp
The suit was filed in October, 2019, against the Israeli surveillance company, NSO Group. It is alleged that NSO had run targeted hacking campaigns against users via the WhatsApp messenger service.
The suit also alleges that NSO Group blatantly violated the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, breach of contract, and trespass to chattels. Facebook and WhatsApp are seeking an injunction to permanently ban the NSO Group from using WhatsApp.
