Other US suits against NSO and Q Cyber: Apple, El Faro and Khashoggi

analysisApple Inc. sued NSO Group Technologies Limited and Q Cyber Technologies Limited in the Northern District of California on 23 November 2021 (3:21-cv-09078, Judge James Donato). In a certificate of interested entities filed in February 2022 the defendants named OSY Technologies as their corporate parent, and on 3 March 2022 they moved to dismiss. The case was stayed in 2022 pending the Supreme Court's decision on NSO's petition in the WhatsApp case, and a later order of the same court records that it rejected NSO's forum non conveniens challenge in January 2024. On 13 September 2024 Apple moved to dismiss its own suit voluntarily; the defendants responded, and on 12 November 2024 Judge Donato issued an order on the voluntary dismissal and sealing, terminating the case. The terms of that order are not described in the retained docket entries. ^{1 2 3}

analysisJournalists of the Salvadoran digital newspaper El Faro sued NSO Group Technologies and Q Cyber Technologies in the same court on 30 November 2022 (Dada v. NSO Group Technologies Limited, 3:22-cv-07513, Judge Donato), alleging that Pegasus was used against their iPhones; an amended complaint followed in December 2022 and the case was related to Apple's. The defendants' motion to dismiss of April 2023 was supported by declarations of Roy Blecher and NSO's chief executive Yaron Shohat. On 8 March 2024 Judge Donato dismissed the suit on the ground of forum non conveniens, accepting NSO's argument that the case involved foreign plaintiffs, foreign defendants and foreign conduct, and noting the complaint's statement that virtually all of the attacks occurred in El Salvador in connection with news stories the plaintiffs were covering there. ^{1 2 3 4}

analysisOn appeal (Nos. 24-2179 and 24-3463), the Ninth Circuit in an unpublished memorandum of 8 July 2025, with Judge Bade dissenting, vacated that dismissal and remanded, describing Pegasus, as the plaintiffs alleged, as a spyware system developed and deployed by NSO Group Technologies and Q Cyber Technologies, both incorporated in Israel. After remand the defendants renewed their motion to dismiss in September 2025, and on 30 September 2026 Judge Donato granted it for lack of personal jurisdiction, dismissed the complaint without prejudice, refused further leave to amend and entered judgment against the plaintiffs. The order describes the claims as NSO supplying spyware to an unnamed government outside the United States to access the Apple iPhones of plaintiffs working for a newspaper in El Salvador; the court did not identify the government, and NSO stated in a declaration that all its employees with relevant knowledge reside in Israel. ^{3 5 6 7}

analysisOn 15 June 2023 Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, the widow of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, filed a seven-count complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia (1:23-cv-779) against NSO Group Technologies Limited and Q Cyber Technologies Limited, alleging that their spyware was used by agents of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to obtain information from two of her phones that was used in the surveillance and assassination of her husband; these allegations are hers. On 26 October 2023 Judge Leonie M. Brinkema granted the defendants' motion to dismiss with prejudice, deciding only the jurisdictional arguments. A litigation tracker kept by an academic research group reports that the Fourth Circuit dismissed her appeal in May 2025 for lack of jurisdiction. ^{1 2}

analysisAs recited in the court's memorandum, the complaint described NSO Group as a subsidiary of Q Cyber, a private company also incorporated in Israel, alleged that founder Omri Lavie runs both companies, and called Westbridge Technologies, Inc. an NSO subsidiary headquartered in Virginia and formed for US sales. The defendants argued that Westbridge is not NSO's subsidiary but a corporate affiliate owned by the same ultimate parent company. The court noted that the complaint did not allege that Westbridge was involved in surveilling the plaintiff. ¹