Facebook wins default ruling in its battle against NSO

Facebook has succeeded in getting a default entered in a lawsuit in which the company has sued the Israeli spyware firm NSO. Facebook filed the suit in the San Francisco Federal Court in October 2019, complaining that NSO had illegally created about 1400 Whatsapp accounts. The accounts which were created using phone numbers of various countries targeted senior government officials as well as lawyers, journalists, politicians, and human rights activists. Facebook alleged that NSO was able to hack into Whatsapp servers by sending malware through the accounts. Although NSO denied ever hacking into Whatsapp, Facebook told the court that NSO had not defended the suit in court. Once a default is entered, a court may proceed to issue judgement without hearing the other side.