Apple To Take Legal Action Against State Trojan Developer NSO Group

The computer company Apple is now taking legal action against a manufacturer of state Trojans. The Israeli company NSO Group is to be prohibited from using all Apple products with an injunction.

The matter is a kind of legal trolling, but it can be quite effective. With an appropriate order, for example, Apple could demand large sums of money from the malware manufacturer if its products are found again on an iPhone. This should then pose a certain economic problem for NSO.

NSO has been one of the most active and successful developers of state trojans for some time. The company provides various states with the most varied of understandings of democracy and the rule of law – including federal German authorities – with tools that enable target persons to be spied on using their smartphones.

$10 Million Donation

“Government-sponsored actors like the NSO Group are spending millions of dollars on advanced surveillance technology with no effective accountability. That has to change,” said Apple’s chief software developer Craig Federighi. Apple, therefore, decided to stop using better technical protective measures against these malware developers.

As part of this, Apple is also donating $10 million to the Citizen Lab (located at the University of Toronto) and Amnesty Tech (the tech division of Amnesty International), which recently tracked down and analyzed state Trojans on multiple occasions. Apple also wants to provide them with technology and technical assistance free of charge. In addition, any income from legal proceedings against NSOs should also be passed on directly to the organizations.