NSO Group, the Israeli spyware-maker behind Pegasus, must pay Meta $167.25 million for hacking 1,400 users across WhatsApp. A federal jury in California made the decision on Tuesday after the court found the NSO Group liable for the attacks last year.

Meta has ramped up its rhetoric after spyware developer NSO Group was ordered to pay the tech giant $259 million ($US168 million) in damages, five years after a cyberattack that saw the Israeli company’s intrusive Pegasus spyware installed on the phones of over 1,400 WhatsApp users.

Although NSO Group plans to appeal, the jury’s award represents a significant win for privacy advocates and critics of the spyware vendor.