The case caps a six-year battle between the social media giant and the surveillance firm, casting an unusual amount of light on the spyware industry.

The Israeli electronic surveillance company NSO Group was ordered to pay $167 million in damages to WhatsApp and its parent company Meta, bringing a close to six years of litigation.

A US jury in California has ordered Israeli cybersecurity company NSO Group Technologies to pay $167m (NIS598.4m) in damages to Meta, concluding a protracted legal battle that began in 2019. The case centred on allegations that NSO had used its spyware to infiltrate WhatsApp accounts belonging to journalists,