NEW: Last week, WhatsApp won a huge court battle against spyware maker NSO, which now has to pay $167,000,000 in damages to the tech giant. As part of the lawsuit and trial, a lot of details have come out about NSO and the cyberattack underpinning the lawsuit. We are reading the hundreds of pages of court docs and hearing transcripts to recap the biggest revelations. Here they are:
TechCrunch
Eight things we learned from WhatsApp vs. NSO Group spyware lawsuit | TechCrunch
The landmark trial between WhatsApp and NSO Group unearthed several new revelations.
NEW: CrowdStrike announced that it will lay off around 500 workers as part of "a strategic plan" to "to evolve its operations to yield greater efficiencies." The cuts represent 5% of its global workforce.
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CrowdStrike says it will lay off 500 workers | TechCrunch
The cybersecurity company said it will lay off 5% of its global workforce.
Skype is getting shut down today. It was certainly one of the most revolutionaries chat apps in history. Skype was the first major chat app to implement end-to-end encryption, prompting authorities all over the world to freak out about it, and look at spyware as a solution. β€œSkype calls have excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption,” Skype’s homepage read in 2004.Β 
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As Skype shuts down, its legacy is end-to-end encryption for the masses | TechCrunch
iMessage, Signal, and WhatsApp have made E2EE the default for messaging, but Skype paved the way decades ago.
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NEW: A court in India has ordered the block Proton Mail across the whole country as part of a case where a local design firm received obscene emails. As of this writing, Proton Mail is still working, based on our tests. Story by @npub1s7s9...f3s3
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Indian court orders blocking of Proton Mail | TechCrunch
The ruling, which has yet to take effect, was ordered under India's online blocking laws.
NEW: Last year, there were 34 recorded zero-days being exploited in real-world attacks, which were attributed to specific groups. Of those, 23 were attributed to government-backed hackers, including spyware makers, which shows that governments are the main users of zero-days. And while those got caught, Google's [@_clem1](
bird.makeup - User
 ) told us that spyware makers β€œare investing more resources in operational security to prevent their capabilities being exposed and to not end up in the news.” Full story:
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Government hackers are leading the use of attributed zero-days, Google says | TechCrunch
Governments like China and North Korea, along with spyware makers, used the most recorded zero-days in 2024.
NEW: Citizen Lab found that hackers targeted Uyghurs in exile with Windows spyware disguised as a Uyghur language text editor. People were alerted by Google of potentially having been targeted by "government-backed attacks."
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Citizen Lab says exiled Uyghur leaders targeted with Windows spyware | TechCrunch
The researchers said the attackers behind the campaign had "deep understanding of the target community."
NEW: In a hearing last week, an NSO Group lawyer said that Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan were among the governments responsible for a 2019 hacking campaign against WhatsApp users. This is the first time representatives of the spyware maker admit who its customers are, after years of refusing to do that.
TechCrunch
NSO lawyer names Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan as spyware customers accused of 2019 WhatsApp hacks | TechCrunch
This is the first time representatives for the spyware maker have publicly named its government customers.
NEW: The notorious image board 4chan has been hacked. Site has been intermittently down for hours, and hackers have published screenshots of site's backend, alleged source code, and list of moderators and "janitors." One janitor told us they are "confident" data is "all real."
TechCrunch
Notorious image board 4chan hacked and internal data leaked | TechCrunch
The infamous website was taken down and working intermittently, while hackers leaked alleged data like moderators email addresses, and source code.
NEW: A recently published court document shows the locations of WhatsApp victims targeted with NSO Group's spyware. The document lists 1,223 victims in 51 countries, including Mexico, India, Morocco, United Kingdom, United States, Spain, Hungary, Netherlands, etc. This targeting was over a span of around two months in 2019, according to WhatsApp's lawsuit against NSO Group.
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Court document reveals locations of WhatsApp victims targeted by NSO spyware | TechCrunch
The list of 1,223 victims in 51 countries hints at the β€œtrue scale of the spyware problem,” per one researcher.
Wanna earn up to $100,000 a month? Perhaps doing crime? For obscure reasons? This is your opportunity. Don't miss out on this bizarre hacking campaign, which is currently looking for recruits here on Twitter. πŸ€” πŸ€” πŸ€”
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Someone is trying to recruit security researchers in bizarre hacking campaignΒ  | TechCrunch
An obscure wannabe hacker's tantalizing (and clearly sketchy) job offer has some security researchers asking, why?