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MENLO PARK, California – WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit against Israeli security company NSO Group which reputedly provides malware or ‘spyware’ to intelligence agencies around the world, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit alleging it hacked into it’s system to assist government spies to hack the mobile devices of 1,400 WhatsApp subscribers across four continents.

Targets allegedly included political activists, journalists, diplomats, and people holding senior roles in governments.

Twenty countries were believed affected, of which only 3 were disclosed, Bahrain, the UAE and Mexico.

It is alleged NSO manufactured, distributed, and operated surveillance technology or “spyware” designed to intercept and extract information and communications from mobile phones and devices. The main technology used was “Pegasus,” a type of spyware known as a remote access trojan.

The suit was filed in the United States District Court in the Northern District of California.

WhatsApp, which is a 100%-owned Facebook subsidiary, says it has notified the 1,400 subscribers affected.

The company is seeking an order that will permanently ban NSO Group and its parent Q Cyber Technologies from accessing its services and systems.

“In May 2019 we stopped a highly sophisticated cyber attack that exploited our video calling system in order to send malware to the mobile devices of a number of WhatsApp users. The nature of the attack did not require targeted users to answer the calls they received. We quickly added new protections to our systems and issued an update to WhatsApp to help keep people safe. We are now taking additional action, based on what we have learned to date,” WhatsApp said in a statement released on Wednesday.

“We sent a special WhatsApp message to approximately 1,400 users that we have reason to believe were impacted by this attack to directly inform them about what happened. Cyber security experts at the Citizen Lab, an academic research group based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School, volunteered to help us to learn more about the impact of this attack on civil society, including journalists and human rights defenders. The Citizen Lab has published information related to this specific attack here and remains available to provide support to this community.”

“WhatsApp cares deeply about the privacy and security of our users. Some of your most personal moments are shared on WhatsApp, which is why we provide end-to-end encryption for all messages and calls by default. This attack was developed to access messages after they were decrypted on an infected device, abusing in-app vulnerabilities and the operating systems that power our mobile phones,” the company’s statement said.

“We agree with UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression David Kaye’s call for a moratorium on these attacks. There must be strong legal oversight of cyber weapons like the one used in this attack to ensure they are not used to violate individual rights and freedoms people deserve wherever they are in the world. Human rights groups have documented a disturbing trend that such tools have been used to attack journalists and human rights defenders. Working with research experts at the Citizen Lab, we believe this attack targeted at least 100 members of civil society, which is an unmistakable pattern of abuse. This number may grow higher as more victims come forward. We are committed to doing all we can, working with industry partners, to protect our users and guard against these kinds of threats.”

“WhatsApp has also filed a complaint in U.S. court that attributes the attack to a spyware company called NSO Group and its parent company Q Cyber Technologies. The complaint alleges they violated both U.S. and California laws as well as the WhatsApp Terms of Service, which prohibits this type of abuse. This is the first time that an encrypted messaging provider is taking legal action against a private entity that has carried out this type of attack against its users. In our complaint we explain how NSO carried out this attack, including acknowledgement from an NSO employee that our steps to remediate the attack were effective. We are seeking a permanent injunction banning NSO from using our service,” the WhatsApp statement published on Wednesday said.

NSO is also facing lawsuits from Amnesty International, which claims the company is involved in “state-sponsored repression,” and a number of activists and jounalists, including long-time friend of the assassinated Jamal Khashoggi, Omar Abdulaziz, who allege their phones were hacked using NSO technology.