"NSO seeks to overturn WhatsApp case, saying it is ‘catastrophic’ for the spyware maker", 20 November 2025

The NSO Group on Wednesday filed an appeal aimed at overturning a judge’s ruling that it must stop targeting the WhatsApp platform with its spyware.

On October 17, Northern California federal judge Phyllis Hamilton issued the order, determining that NSO improperly leveraged WhatsApp infrastructure to target 1,400 of the Meta-owned messaging platform’s users with its zero-click Pegasus spyware. 

In a court filing ahead of the ruling, NSO told the judge that blocking it from targeting WhatsApp infrastructure to implant its spyware could “put NSO’s entire enterprise at risk” and “force NSO out of business.”

In a motion to stay the order pending the outcome of the appeal, the NSO Group again focused on the “catastrophic” damage the permanent injunction will do its business, saying that if the ruling isn’t stayed NSO will “suffer irreparable, potentially existential injuries.”...

A spokesperson for WhatsApp said that the appeal is another example of NSO trying to avoid accountability. “NSO’s attacks on an American company and our users’ private communications were illegal, and we’re committed to holding them and the surveillance industry accountable,” the spokesperson said in a statement.