El Faro Journalists Sue NSO Group in U.S. Federal Court for Pegasus Spyware Attacks

On November 30, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University sued NSO Group on behalf of a group of journalists from the El Salvador-based news organization El Faro, the first such lawsuit against NSO group in a U.S. court. According to the lawsuit, El Faro’s journalists were targeted over an eighteen-month period by spyware attacks using NSO Group’s Pegasus technology, which can surreptitiously provide access to the contents of targeted devices and cloud accounts, including contacts, emails, text messages, GPS locations, and search history. According to the plaintiffs, these attacks often coincided with El Faro’s investigations into President Nayib Bukele’s administration. 

Earlier this year, EPIC submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FBI seeking information about its connections to NSO Group and use of Pegasus spyware.