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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 1 November 2019
Facebook sues Israeli company over WhatsApp spyware

By FRANK BAJAK for an immediate morato-
AP Cybersecurity Writer rium on the sale, transfer
Facebook sued the Israeli and use of dangerous spy-
hacker-for-hire company ware."
NSO Group on Tuesday in "This is huge. I am really
U.S. federal court for alleg- glad to see a tech com-
edly targeting some 1,400 pany put their massive liti-
users of its encrypted mes- gation team on the field on
saging service WhatsApp behalf of users," tweeted
with highly sophisticated Alex Stamos, a Stanford
spyware. University researcher and
The lawsuit filed in San Fran- former Facebook chief se-
cisco is the first legal ac- curity officer.
tion of its kind, according WhatsApp is the world's
to Facebook, involving a most popular communica-
nearly totally unregulated tions software, with about
realm. 1.5 billion users in 180 coun-
Facebook says NSO Group tries.
violated laws including the John Scott-Railton, a re-
U.S. Computer Fraud and searcher with the internet
Abuse Act with a crafty ex- watchdog Citizen Lab,
ploit that took advantage called the hack "a very
of a flaw in the popular scary vulnerability" when
communications program In this Nov. 15, 2018, file photo the icons of Facebook and WhatsApp are pictured on an iPhone in it was discovered. "There's
allowing a smartphone to Gelsenkirchen, Germany. nothing a user could have
be penetrated through Associated Press done here, short of not
missed calls alone. having the app."
"It targeted at least 100 hu- ously associated with NSO licensed government intel- dophile rings, drug traffick- Citizen Lab subsequently
man-rights defenders, jour- Group, which has been ligence and law enforce- ers and terrorists and that volunteered to assist Face-
nalists and other members widely condemned for sell- ment agencies to help NSO's technologies "pro- book in the investigation.
of civil society across the ing surveillance tools to re- them fight terrorism and se- vide proportionate, lawful The lawsuit alleges that ma-
world," the head of What- pressive governments. rious crime," the company solutions." licious code from NSO was
sApp, Will Cathart, wrote in NSO Group issued a state- said. "Our technology is not Facebook demands in the sent from April 29 through
an op-ed published by The ment in which it did not di- designed or licensed for suit that NSO Group be de- May 10 over WhatsApp
Washington Post. rectly deny hacking What- use against human rights nied access to Facebook's servers. The aim was to in-
He said that since discover- sApp but which said it dis- activists and journalists. It services and systems and fect some 1,400 devices
ing the malware operation puted the allegations and has helped to save thou- seeks unspecified damag- whose users included at-
in May, Facebook learned vowed to "vigorously fight sands of lives over recent es. Cathart said leaders of torneys, journalists, human
that the attackers were them." years." tech firms "should join U.N. rights activists, political dissi-
using servers and internet- "The sole purpose of NSO is It said strongly encrypted (free speech) Special Rap- dents, diplomats and other
hosting services previ- to provide technology to platforms are used by pe- porteur David Kaye's call government officials.q

Hackers plead guilty in data

breach that Uber covered up

23, acknowledged steal- used for identity theft and ment within Uber's ranks ,
ing personal information other malicious purposes. attempts to dupe govern-
from companies that was "Companies like Uber are ment regulators and ac-
stored on Amazon Web the caretakers, not the cusations of stealing self-
Services from October owners, of customers' per- driving car technology .
2016 to January 2017 and sonal information," Ander- As part of their scheme,
then demanding to be son said in a statement. Glover and Mereacre also
paid to destroy the data. Uber declined to com- tried to blackmail Lynda.
Uber met the hackers' ment on the guilty pleas com, part of professional
In this Aug. 16, 2019, file photo, the logo for Uber appears
above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Ex- demand with a $100,000 and Anderson's criticism. networking service Linke-
change. payment, but waited until The San Francisco com- dIn, according to authori-
Associated Press November 2017 to reveal pany has previously said ties. Instead of meeting
that the personal informa- it mishandled the data those demands, LinkedIn
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — sengers and drivers. tion of both its riders and breach. By the time Uber tried to identify the extor-
Two computer hackers The pleas entered drivers around the world came clean about the in- tionists, the government
have pleaded guilty to Wednesday in a San Jose, had fallen into the hands cident, it had ousted its co- said. The two men each
concocting an extortion California, federal court by of criminals. founder, Travis Kalanick, as face up to five years and
scheme that entangled Brandon Charles Glover U.S. Attorney David Ander- CEO. Dara Khosrowshahi prison and a $250,000 fine.
Uber in a yearlong cover- and Vasile Mereacre resur- son ripped into Uber for not was then brought in to re- A status conference about
up of a data breach that rected another unseemly immediately alerting au- place Kalanick and burnish their sentencing has been
stole sensitive information episode in Uber's check- thorities about the loss of an image that had been scheduled for March 18
about 57 million of the ered history. so much personal informa- tarnished by revelations before U.S. District Judge
ride-hailing service's pas- Glover, 26, and Mereacre, tion that could have been of rampant sexual harass- Lucy Koh.q