India, May 7 -- A US jury has ordered NSO Group, the company behind the notorious Pegasus spyware, to pay more than $167 million in punitive damages to Meta for deploying malware via WhatsApp. The decision marks a significant legal victory for Meta following years of courtroom battles.

Meta first sued NSO Group in 2019, alleging that the Israeli firm used its Pegasus spyware to target over 1,400 individuals across 20 countries-including journalists, human rights activists, and political dissidents. According to Meta, the malware was delivered through WhatsApp video calls, even if those calls went unanswered.

A US judge previously found that NSO had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, setting the stage for the jury trial to determ...