Fifteen representatives of the Salvadoran media Lighthouse They sued NSO Group for espionage. Israeli company responsible for development Pegasus before spyware federal court in California.

The plaintiffs, who include both journalists from Lighthouse and media executives filed complaints alleging violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which prohibits unauthorized access to computers. The lawsuit was filed jointly with The Knight Institute, a nonprofit legal organization affiliated with Columbia University.

Carlos Dada, co-founder of the newspaper Lighthouseexplained in Aristegui Live that the lawsuit was a response to 22 members of his team were intercepted by the Pegasus spyware from June 2020 to November 2021

Dada explained that the judge initially admitted the claim, but in March this year concluded that he did not have jurisdiction over the case, prompting Dada and his team to appeal the decision.

They are currently in the appeal process. However, in recent days, various organizations, both tech and print, have filed amicus curiae briefs in support of this version. They are among them Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, New York Times, Pulitzer Center and the Society of Professional Journalists.

In the lawsuit, Dada and his team of journalists are asking the judge to order NSO to do three things:

1. Determine what information was extracted from the journalists’ phones: This includes a detailed description of what data was retrieved using the Pegasus software and what has happened to that information since it was retrieved.

2. Immediately terminate contracts with operators who use software to spy on human rights activists and journalists: This includes terminating any commercial agreements that allow Pegasus to be used for purposes other than counter-terrorism, in particular for surveillance of people not involved in terrorist activity.

3. Identify operators using Pegasus incorrectly: The NSOs are called upon to identify which countries and government agencies are using the software to unlawfully spy on journalists and human rights defenders.

Carlos Dada stressed the importance of this requirement not only for them, but for everyone affected by Pegasus around the world.

“We saw a window and an opportunity to also speak out on behalf of our colleagues around the world who didn’t have that window to protect us a little bit.”

He also highlighted the crucial role of the Forbidden Stories project called Project Pegasus, which led to the US blacklisting of the NSO. However, he points out that did not prevent the company from continuing to work with government agencies, because they were spied on after the project was published.

“The fact that we were subsequently infected shows, first of all, that this did not prevent them from doing business with other government agencies, even such a scandal as the Pegasus project.”