Until now, it wasn’t clear who was actually sending the malicious WhatsApp messages to target individuals with spyware. For years, NSO has claimed to have no knowledge of customers’ operations, and not be involved in carrying out the targeted cyberattacks. The newly released court documents cast doubt on some of NSO’s claims.
WhatsApp argued in one of the court documents that, “NSO’s customers’ role is minimal,” given that the government customers only needed to input the phone number of the target’s device and, citing an NSO employee, “press Install, and Pegasus will install the agent on the device remotely without any engagement.”