WhatsApp made an official warning today and launched a series of extremely serious accusations aimed at a method by which the phones of several hundred users around the world were very easily hacked, at least from what is known now. WhatsApp accuses an Israeli company, called NSO Group, of using special software, called Pegasus, to hack the phones of at least 1400 users through a single VoIP phone call.
WhatsApp claims that after exploiting the vulnerability in its application through a phone call, the Israeli company monitored the activity on the phones, extracted data from them, and updated the software. The information comes from documents submitted to the file of a lawsuit that WhatsApp started against the Israeli company last year, and we are talking about the first lawsuit of this kind opened for the exploitation of the American platform.
WhatsApp: Official WARNING, How Phones were BROKEN
WhatsApp started this process after NSO Group managed to exploit a vulnerability in the application that generated a huge scandal when it was officially announced by the company last year. In the meantime, those from WhatsApp managed to discover how that hack was done by the Israeli company, and we are talking about a method that until the moment of use had not been used by any other company in IT security.
"WhatsApp claimed in new court filings that an Israeli spy company used US servers and was 'deeply involved' in hacking the cellphones of 1.400 WhatsApp users, including senior government officials, journalists and activists for human rights. WhatsApp said victims of the hack received phone calls using its messaging app and were infected with Pegasus. He then said: “The NSO used a network of computers to monitor and update Pegasus after it was implanted on users' devices. These NSO-controlled computers served as the nerve center through which the NSO controlled the operation and use of Pegasus clients.''
WhatsApp it was not the only problem of this kind, and that's because another vulnerability, possibly exploited by the same company, allowed the phone of the Amazon CEO to be hacked. In that case, a simple video clip sent to the CEO's WhatsApp account was needed to hack the phone, so everything was much simpler, but that problem was also disclosed publicly by the company because later to have another scandal around him.
WhatsApp he is now trying to show the whole world where his problems started and where everything is heading, but it remains to be seen to what extent we will find out more valid information about the secrets of hacks of this kind.
