The American company "WhatsApp" said that an Israeli spy company was "deeply involved" in hacking the accounts of 1400 users of the application, including journalists, government officials and opponents, by targeting them with penetration calls.
Author Alex Hudson said in his report, published by the American magazine "Newsweek", that the messaging application, which is owned by Facebook, claimed in a new lawsuit that the group "NSO" - an Israeli company specialized in installing spyware - used servers located in the states United and violated human rights in India and Rwanda.
The Israeli company has long stated that the spyware it is developing is purchased by governments and other customers to track down criminals, and this means that the employees of this company are not familiar with how to use the program. However, in reality, the lawsuit says that the program - known as "Pegasus" - penetrated the phones of the targeted people after the company "NSO" reached the servers of the WhatsApp application.
The report states that the hacking process occurred through the application of reverse engineering technology on WhatsApp, a method in which experts break up the application's parts to know its properties, in order to avoid security features and manipulate the way of making calls. Thus, "Pegasus" program could have been installed on the user's phone by making a single call via WhatsApp, whether or not they were answered, according to the report.
According to WhatsApp court files, NSO used a network of computers to monitor and update Pegasus after installing it on users ’devices. These computers served as a control center for the company, providing its customers with private information for targeted users.
The writer mentioned that the WhatsApp application provides full encryption of the conversations, so it was said that it is difficult to breach it. But the company discovered the vulnerability that allowed "Pegasus" to penetrate the application in May 2019.
WhatsApp has updated the application to provide security against this type of piracy. According to the "Financial Times" newspaper, the company revealed 12 weaknesses in its application last year, seven of which were considered "dangerous". In return, NSO denied responsibility for the charges against it, and says it does not know what its customers are doing with the program.
In a related context, a spokesman for the Israeli company stated in his interview with "Newsweek" magazine that "our products are used to combat terrorism, to end violent crime and to save many lives. The company does not run Pegasus' program for its customers, and it cannot be used to target phone numbers."
"The previous statements that we made about our work and the extent of our interaction with government intelligence agents and law enforcement agencies, were accurate," the spokesman added.
It is expected that the Israeli company will respond officially in the coming days to the charges against it.