Apple sues NSO group over tracking software

Silicon Valley tech giant Apple filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the NSO Group and its parent company Q Cyber Technologies claiming that the company's products have been used to harm Apple users. 

The lawsuit has been filed with the US District Court of Northern California according to which Apple calls the Israeli company modern-day mercenaries whose products target journalists, politicians, and activists among others. The main software in question here is NSO's Pegasus software. Apple's Senior Vice President of software engineering, Craig Federighi said that companies like the NSO Group use millions of dollars to make complicated surveillance technologies without proper accountability and that must change. Even though the software affects only a handful of Apple's customers they still take it seriously. The lawsuit is based on the findings of Citizen Lab, a research group from the University of Toronto that has been documenting the activities of Pegasus for a long time now. Earlier in September, the report suggested that iPhone users are vulnerable to "zero-clicks" attacks making them susceptible to the Pegasus software, Apple quickly released a software update to prevent this. NSO Group has also been blacklisted by the US Commerce Department due to its "malicious" activities. 

Due to the software, Apple manufacturers had to spend a lot of time identifying threats and correcting them. They are seeking relief for damages claiming that NSO violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California Business and Professions Code, breach of contract for phones Terms and Services, and Unjust Enrichment for improper use of Apple's computer servers. 

Source: Business Insider