By Ceara Sutton-Jones
Your commercial awareness dose
From far-fetched blockbuster films about AI to its recent developments in the M&A world, with deal volume increasing almost ten-fold from 2013-2018; there is no doubt that technology is not only progressing but also consuming the world at a rapid rate. Cyber intelligence is a perfect example of this, where the mystery surrounding its complicated nature alongside its pre-eminence in today’s society can somewhat leave the ethical debates in the dust. However, just recently, a cohort of tech giants including Microsoft and Google amongst many others were led by WhatsApp in a stand against a firm under the name of the NSO group, many members face a threat in a bid to protect their customers against spyware and cyber-surveillance technologies.
It sometimes can be difficult for sectors such as the legal world to come to a resolution when trying to find a balance between what are sometimes two completely contradicting notions: the demand for an increasingly ‘smarter’ world and the fundamental human right to privacy. However, the extent of the illegality and violation within this case has proven too great to ignore which raises the question – is it possible that we as a society have become too wrapped up in the excitement of the endless possibilities that technology offers, that we have blurred the line to the extent where we struggle to know when to draw it?
Founded in 2010, The NSO Group is a technology firm based in Israel that specialises in spyware to survey smartphones and since its creation it has only grown from strength to strength, now being valued at a whopping $1 billion. Its Pegasus spyware is mainly sold to governments and law enforcement agencies ‘in order to prevent and investigate terrorism and crime to save thousands of lives around the globe’ as it presents the first page of their website. Here, the harrowing images of firefighters surrounded by ruins under the bold and capitalised caption of ‘helping governments maintain public safety’ mirrors their humanitarian approach to the website.
Perhaps a tad ironic upon reflection when realising that many human rights activists were those amongst the 1,400 people whose devices were both unknowingly and illegally hacked in to. By using an undisclosed vulnerability within WhatsApp, one that the app has since amended, the NSO group were accused of hacking into an estimated 1,400 devices some of which included highly prolific members of society who entrusted the app, an encrypted messaging service, to be able to communicate within a protected environment.
Whilst NSO disputed claims, and even tried to get the case dismissed under the grounds that they should be protected under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the court rejected these claims recognising the importance of civil privacy. This case is neither the first nor probably last scandal that the NSO group will be involved in, perhaps unsurprisingly so considering that the Israeli Ministry of Defence classifies the software as a national cyber-weapon. However, it will be interesting to follow its progression if anything to see which way the verdict leans – in the interests of the average person’s privacy or towards that of a large corporation who holds the power of monitoring anyone’s information.
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