SAN FRANCISCO: A US judge has granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users but slashed a $168 million damages award at trial to just $4m.

District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled on Friday that NSO Group’s behaviour fell short of a “particularly egregious” standard needed to support the jury’s calculations on a financial penalty.

But in the ruling, she said the court “concluded that defendants’ conduct causes irreparable harm, and there being no dispute that the conduct is ongoing” the judge granted WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction to stop NSO Group’s snooping tactics at the messaging service.

“We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting civil society members,” WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart said in a statement.

Evidence at trial showed that NSO Group reverse-engineered WhatsApp code to stealthily install spyware targeting users, according to the ruling.

The spyware was repeatedly redesigned to escape detection and bypass security fixes at WhatsApp, the court concluded.

The lawsuit, filed in late 2019, accused NSO Group of cyberespionage targeting journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others using the encrypted messaging service.

Hamilton ruled however that the $168m damages verdict awarded to Meta earlier this year was excessive.

“There have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the smartphone era for the court to be able to conclude that defendants’ conduct was ‘particularly egregious’,” Hamilton wrote in the ruling.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2025