Apple filed a lawsuit against NSO Group and its parent company. The lawsuit holds the company accountable for illegal surveillance targeted at Apple device users. As a result, the iPhone maker is looking forward to having a permanent ban in place to stop NSO Group from using its software, devices, or services.
“State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change,” said Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi. “Apple devices are the most secure consumer hardware on the market — but private companies developing state-sponsored spyware have become even more dangerous. While these cybersecurity threats only impact a very small number of our customers, we take any attack on our users very seriously, and we’re constantly working to strengthen the security and privacy protections in iOS to keep all our users safe.”
Sophisticated surveillance technology
The complaint filed by Apple against NSO Group details how the group used Pegasus spyware to infect Apple devices. The group is known for creating state-sponsored spyware (surveillance technology) which is sophisticated in nature. The attacks reportedly only target a small percentage of people.
“At Apple, we are always working to defend our users against even the most complex cyberattacks. The steps we’re taking today will send a clear message: In a free society, it is unacceptable to weaponise powerful state-sponsored spyware against those who seek to make the world a better place,” said Ivan Krstić, head of Apple Security Engineering and Architecture. “Our threat intelligence and engineering teams work around the clock to analyse new threats, rapidly patch vulnerabilities, and develop industry-leading new protections in our software and silicon. Apple runs one of the most sophisticated security engineering operations in the world, and we will continue to work tirelessly to protect our users from abusive state-sponsored actors like NSO Group.”
