Apple Abandons Spyware Suit to Avoid Sharing Cyber Secrets

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Stopping the spread of commercial spyware is shaping up to be too big of a job even for tech titans like Apple.

The company dropped its years-long legal effort against Pegasus spyware dealer NSO Group, declining to hand over sensitive threat intelligence that it said could be used by adversaries against its own security defenses.

Pegasus spyware is a zero-click espionage malware deployed against iPhones, including that of Russian journalist Galina Timchenko, among others.

Meanwhile, international governments continue to hammer individuals and entities affiliated with commercial spyware operations with sweeping sanctions that have have little effect, leaving the digital espionage market wide open for investors, operators, and dictators around the globe.

Cupertino’s brass is also encouraged by the work the US, international governments, and the tech sector at large have done to fight the rise of commercial spyware, Apple explained in its Sept. 13 motion to dismiss.

“When it filed this lawsuit nearly three years ago, Apple recognized that it would involve sharing information with third parties,” Apple said. “Because of the developments since this suit was filed, proceeding forward at this time would now present too significant a risk to Apple’s threat intelligence program.”

Apple laid out other factors in the changed the landscape that made it increasingly dangerous for the company to release sensitive information.

First, Apple claimed that in the years since it first brought legal action against NSO Group it has continued to develop its threat intelligence to actively defend its users from threat actors. Handing over details about how Apple fights spyware to known spyware operators would be a bad idea. Apple added that NSO Group had been stingy with disclosures it made during the case’s discovery process.

Further, Apple noted the commercial spyware sector has become more decentralized and that NSO Group is no longer a single actor in the cyber-espionage space; any action against the Israeli company would simply strengthen other spyware sellers as authoritarian governments pivot from Pegasus to numerous competing spyware brands.

Finally, Apple explained to the court that international governments have come around in the past three years and taken up the fight against spyware and the threat it poses to human rights around the world.

Spyware Sanctions Aren’t Working

As if on cue, the US Department of the Treasury dropped a new round of sanctions just days later, on Sept. 16, this time against what the department calls “enablers” of the Intellexa commercial spyware consortium, identified to be behind Predator spyware. Sanctioned individuals include Felix Bitzios, Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi, Merom Harpaz, Panagiota Karaoli, Artemis Artemiou, and the Aliada Group Inc.

These sanctions prohibit any US transactions with those named as well as any entities in which they own 50% or more, bar them from obtaining a US visa, and more.

But research shows sanctions have had little impact on stymieing the broader commercial spyware market. Digital eavesdropping continues to be deployed against diplomats, journalists, and ordinary citizens and vendors while intelligence gatherers have improved their ability to operate in the shadows, easily gaming sanctions and restrictions.

This past March, two individuals and five entities the US government said were associated with Predator mobile spyware operators were sanctioned as a result of Predator’s network and infrastructure’s spread into Botswana and the Philippines.

Nonetheless, it seems the cost of stopping spyware in the courtroom is too high even for the deepest-pocketed actors like Apple. Instead Apple said it will dig in on defense and leave offense to the feds.

“Apple has made the decision to prioritize its expert security resources and advanced threat-intelligence program to continue to stop destructive spyware through technical methods,” the company said.