Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has sued NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company, for alleged surveillance and targeting of Apple users.
The US firm is seeking a permanent injunction banning the Israeli firm from using any Apple software, services or devices.
Silicon Valley-based Apple said it has provided new information on how the company infected hardware through its Pegasus Spyware.
Research by Citizen Lab in September this year highlighted that the spyware mainly targeted journalists, activists, dissidents, academics and government officials.
Devices were infiltrated via attackers creating Apple IDs, sending malicious data to a victims phone or laptop.
This allowed NSO Group to deliver and install the Pegasus spyware into the equipment without the victim’s knowledge, allowing access to the microphone, camera and other sensitive data.
Apple stressed that there was no hacking or compromise of its servers.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said: “While these cybersecurity threats only impact a very small number of our customers, we take any attack on our users very seriously, and we’re constantly working to strengthen the security and privacy protections in iOS to keep all our users safe.”
NSO Group was recently blacklisted by the Biden administration, limiting its access to US components and technology by requiring government permission before exporting.
The US government said the company, founded in 2010, acted “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US”.