Following reports that the Pentagon had raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to “critical,” Meta said an Israeli spyware firm was caught targeting a small group of WhatsApp users.

Meta says an Israeli spyware vendor, NSO Group, has been targeting WhatsApp users in a new spear-phishing campaign after detecting malicious links tied to the company’s tools, as the New York Times reports. The spear-phishing attempts, which were sent to fewer than 10 users primarily in Jordan and Lebanon, did not succeed and were flagged after users reported suspicious activity.

In a blog post Monday, Meta said NSO Group's actions violate a court order from last year barring the firm from going after its platforms, and the company plans to ask the court to hold NSO in contempt.

According to Meta, the spear-phishing campaign used deceptive links designed to push victims off WhatsApp to external sites, similar to earlier one-click phishing operations linked to NSO. The company also said it identified test accounts and groups associated with the activity and took them down.

Meta also notes a prior federal ruling that found NSO violated hacking laws, following a years-long case tied to spyware targeting roughly 1,400 WhatsApp accounts. NSO Group, which is best known for its Pegasus spyware, was ordered last year to pay damages in the case before the figure was later reduced.

Meta also said it's sharing examples of how spyware can compromise users' devices across platforms and how to prevent being hacked. The company reiterated that WhatsApp messages remain end-to-end encrypted.

The incident comes after the Defense Intelligence Agency raised Israel’s counterintelligence threat assessment to its highest level, “critical,” according to current and former U.S. officials, as NBC News reported Friday. The designation reflects concerns among US defense officials that Israeli intelligence activity has expanded in ways they view as increasingly focused on monitoring senior American policymakers and internal discussions around the Iran conflict.

Officials said that while the assessment does not appear to affect day-to-day intelligence sharing between the two countries, they’re emphasizing that extra caution is needed during travel and high-level meetings as tensions rise between the US and Israel over strategy in the Middle East, particularly around Iran and Lebanon.

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