A year on from the ousting of Assad

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  Damascus, Syria — “Hold your head high, you’re a free Syrian.” The refrain of this Arabic song—now widely embraced as the unofficial anthem of a new Syria—echoes throughout Damascus. It blares from market loudspeakers, rings out during celebrations in the central square, and is even sung by the man offering traditional coffee to new arrivals at the airport. For decades, many Syrians lived with lowered gazes under the authoritarian rule of the Al-Assad family. The regime maintained an expansive surveillance system in which the feared Mukhabarat , the intelligence network, kept the population in check. Remaining silent was often the safest choice—until the Arab Spring ignited an uprising, and Assad’s fierce response plunged the nation into a ten-year civil war. Today, Syrians are openly and energetically marking the first anniversary of what they regard as their liberation from Assad’s government. The celebration follows a rapid rebel offensive on December 8 last year, led by fo...
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US court bans Israeli spyware firm from targeting WhatsApp users

 

A judge in the United States has reduced an earlier damages award of $168 million to just $4 million and granted an injunction prohibiting Israeli spyware manufacturer the NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users. The judge stated that the company's software causes "direct harm." District judge Phyllis Hamilton said that the Israeli company's "conduct causes irreparable harm" and that there was "no dispute that the conduct is ongoing" in granting WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction on Friday to prevent NSO's spyware from being used in the messaging service.
Hamilton stated that the conduct of NSO "serves to defeat" one of WhatsApp's primary goals, which is privacy. She stated, "Any unauthorized access is an interference with that sale." Informational privacy is a component of what companies like WhatsApp are "selling." Hamilton said in her decision that the trial evidence showed that NSO reverse-engineered the WhatsApp code to install its spyware, Pegasus, stealthily on users' phones and repeatedly redesigned it to avoid detection and get around security fixes. NSO was established in 2010 and is headquartered in Herzliya, an Israeli seaside technology hub close to Tel Aviv. Operators are able to remotely embed spyware in devices using Pegasus, a highly intrusive piece of software marketed as a tool for law enforcement to combat terrorism and crime. According to NSO, the spyware is only sold to vetted and legitimate government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. But Meta, which owns WhatsApp, filed a lawsuit in California federal court in late 2019, accusing NSO of exploiting its encrypted messaging service to target journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists with its spyware.
Given NSO's "multiple design-arounds" to infect WhatsApp users, such as missed phone calls and "zero-click" attacks, and the "covert nature" of the company's work in general, Judge Hamilton stated that her broad injunction was appropriate.

The "ruling bans spyware maker NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp and our global users again," WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart stated in a statement. “After six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting members of civil society, we applaud this decision. He stated, "It sets an important precedent that attacking an American company has serious consequences." Meta had asked Hamilton to extend the injunction to its other products – including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads – but the judge ruled there was no way for her to determine if similar harms were being done on the other platforms without more evidence.
 Hamilton also ruled that the court did not have "sufficient basis" to support the jury's initial calculation of $168 million in damages against NSO to Meta in May of this year. Hamilton wrote, "There have simply not yet been enough cases involving unlawful electronic surveillance in the era of smartphones for the court to be able to conclude that defendants’ conduct was ‘particularly egregious.'" The judge decided that the punitive damages ratio should be "capped at 9/1," bringing the initial amount down to just $4 million from $164 million.


Location: United States

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