WhatsApp CEO Says Government Officials Were Targeted by NSO Group

Kaseya forced NDA on customers to get ransomware decryption key, NSO group blames Qatar or BDS for journalists' investigations, MacOS malware XCSSET emerges, Beware fake Windows 11 installers, more

WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart claims that government officials worldwide are among 1,400 WhatsApp users targeted with NSO Group spyware in a 2019 attack against WhatsApp users.

WhatsApp also found that journalists and human rights activists were targeted in the 2019 attack. Many of the targets in the WhatsApp case, he said, had “no business being under surveillance in any way, shape, or form.” (Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian)

Related: The Washington Post, 9to5Mac, Business Insider, The Hill: Cybersecurity, Engadget, The New Arab, Presstv, DataBreachToday.com

Software supplier Kaseya, the victim of a ransomware attack over the July 4th weekend, offered to help downstream customers who were also victims of the attack by supplying a mysteriously obtained decryption key but only if those customers signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

The key comes too late for many of Kaseya’s customers, who felt obligated to rebuild their systems in the intervening three weeks quickly. Moreover, the…