Apple seeks dismissal of its NSO Group lawsuit, citing risk of exposing ‘vital security information’

Apple on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss its lawsuit against NSO Group, a developer of powerful spyware, saying that moving forward in the case would expose critical security information it uses to combat the expanding proliferation of commercial surveillance tools in general.

Its efforts have “substantially weakened” the NSO Group, Apple said in its court filing, but added that new spyware companies have sprung up, meaning a judgment against the NSO Group would have a limited effect on the industry.

The NSO Group’s powerful zero-click Pegasus spyware is considered one of the world’s most advanced and pervasive commercial surveillance tools.

“While Apple continues to believe in the merits of its claims, it has also determined that proceeding further with this case has the potential to put vital security information at risk,” the court filing said. 

The lawsuit, which was filed nearly three years ago, sought to hold NSO Group accountable for how Pegasus has compromised the privacy and security of Apple users.

Apple said in the filing that it realized it could expose security information when it first sued but that “developments since the filing of this lawsuit have reshaped the risk landscape of sharing such information.” 

It added that while it trusts the court’s dedication to protect sensitive information on its security practices, “predator spyware companies, including those not before this court, will use any means to obtain this information.”

The company cited July reports that Israel has interfered in the WhatsApp lawsuit against the NSO Group, which has alleged that Pegasus infected phones belonging to 1,400 of its users.

The NSO Group allegedly obtained “highly controlled materials” through a hack of Israel’s ministry of justice, Apple said, citing news reports.

Calling its anti-spyware program the most advanced in the world, Apple said in the filing that it believes potentially compromising its methods would “severely undermine the effectiveness of Apple’s program and ability to protect its users, especially in a high threat environment where adversaries aggressively seek this information using any means necessary.”

“Defendants have been supplanted in part by a growing number of different spyware companies, meaning threats are no longer concentrated in a single, powerful actor,” the court filing said. 

“The result is that even complete victory in this suit will no longer have the same impact as it would have had in 2021; instead of eliminating with one judgment a significant portion of the threat environment, other spyware companies unaffiliated with defendants would be unaffected by the suit and able to continue their destructive tactics,” it added.