By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com — Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced Tuesday it is suing NSO Group, the Israeli company that creates state-sponsored surveillance technology. Using its Pegasus software, NSO Group works with Governments to hack iPhones and read data on them.
Shares of Apple fell 0.6% on Tuesday.
Apple said it is seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices, a move that would make its software defunct.
According to Apple, the attacks are only aimed at a very small number of users, but they can affect people across multiple platforms, including iOS and Android.
While the tech company said it has now patched a previous vulnerability used to break into Apple devices, there is a publicly documented history from researchers and journalists of the spyware being used to target journalists, activists, dissidents, academics, and government officials.
"To deliver FORCEDENTRY to Apple devices, attackers created Apple IDs to send malicious data to a victim's device — allowing NSO Group or its clients to deliver and install Pegasus spyware without a victim's knowledge," the company explained, while reiterating "Apple servers were not hacked."
Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said: "State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change."
Apple isn't the first company to sue NSO Group. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is also suing the group, accusing them of exploiting a bug in its Whatsapp messenger app to install malware.