Israel’s NSO Group Linked to Hacking Tool Pitched To U.S Police

Israel’s NSO Group Linked to Hacking Tool Pitched To U.S Police

(Bloomberg) -- A pitch for cellphone hacking technology sent to the San Diego Police Department in 2016 may add a new wrinkle to a lawsuit between WhatsApp and Israeli spyware manufacturer NSO Group.


WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook Inc., sued NSO Group last year over claims it illegally used WhatsApp servers to send malware in an attempt to hack hundreds of cellphones. The Israeli firm is pushing to have the suit thrown out, claiming that it’s not a U.S. company and not under U.S. legal jurisdiction.


But documents published Tuesday by Vice show that Bethesda, Maryland-based Westbridge Technologies pitched a cellphone hacking service dubbed Phantom to the San Diego Police Department while claiming to be the “North American branch of NSO Group.”


In a sworn statement submitted as part of the WhatsApp lawsuit, NSO Group Chief Executive Officer Shalev Hulio said that Westbridge technologies is “neither NSO’s subsidiary nor its arm.” NSO Group says it’s the subsidiary company of Q Cyber Technologies, which was also named by WhatsApp in its lawsuit.


According to the LinkedIn page of Terry Divittorio, the former president of Westbridge Technologies, the company is “the U.S. affiliate of Q Cyber Technologies.”


In its lawsuit, WhatsApp claimed that NSO technology was used to target a phone number with a Washington D.C. area code.