The recently unsealed court documents of WhatsApp revealed the extensive reach of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware operation, which targeted "hundreds and tens of thousands" of devices, according to testimony from the company's head of research and development. 
The Israeli surveillance company charged government clients up to $6,8 million for one-year licenses, generating at least $31 million in revenue in 2019 alone, as Reported TechCrunch.
The documents detail the unknown hacking tools named “Hummingbird”, “Eden” and “Heaven”, which were developed specifically to hack WhatsApp users' devices.
WhatsApp was able to stop NSO's "Eden" and "Heaven" exploits with security updates, according to an internal NSO communication.
Court documents show that the NSO Heaven exploits were active before 2018 and were designed to direct communications from WhatsApp devices to a malicious relay server controlled by NSO.
The revelations stem from a lawsuit WhatsApp filed in 2019 against NSO Group for violations of US anti-hacking laws.
Recall that Pegasus has been used by various governments to monitor journalists and opposition.
