According to four people familiar with the matter, an unidentified attacker used sophisticated spyware developed by the Israel-based NSO Group to hack the Apple iPhones of at least nine U.S. State Department employees.

Two sources said that hacker attacks in the past few months have attacked US officials in Uganda or are concerned about affairs related to this East African country.

The intrusion reported here for the first time represents the most extensive hacking attack by U.S. officials using NSO technology. Previously, in the NSO report, a numerical list of potential targets including some US officials appeared, but it is not clear whether the invasion is always attempted or successful. Reuters could not determine who launched the latest cyber attack.

NSO Group said in a statement on Thursday that there is no indication that their tools have been used, but that it has cancelled access to relevant customers and will conduct an investigation based on a Reuters investigation.

“If our investigation reveals that these behaviors were indeed caused by using NSO tools, then the customer will be permanently terminated and legal action taken,” an NSO spokesperson said, adding that NSO will also “cooperate with any relevant government agency And provide complete information”. The information we will have. “NSO has long stated that it only sells its products to government law enforcement and intelligence customers to help them monitor security threats, and does not directly participate in surveillance operations.

Officials at the Uganda Embassy in Washington did not comment. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the State Department declined to comment on the invasion, but instead pointed out that the U.S. Department of Commerce recently decided to include the Israeli company on the list of entities, making it more difficult for U.S. companies to do business with them.

NSO Group and another spyware company “in accordance with their decision to develop and provide spyware to foreign governments that use this tool to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businessmen, activists, academics, and embassy staff, add it to the entity In the list,” the Ministry of Commerce said in an announcement last month.

News Source : Gadgets 360