The cell phones of at least nine U.S. State Department employees were hacked by an anonymous attacker, using spyware developed by the Israeli NSO group, four people involved in the matter told Reuters tonight (Friday).
According to the publication, follow-up has taken place in recent months of workers placed or employed in Uganda.
This is the most widespread hacking carried out against US government employees using NSO software.
The report states that it is not known who is behind the actual hacking of the phones.
"If our investigation shows that these actions did take place with our tools, the engagement with such a client will end permanently and we will take legal action," an NSO spokesman said, adding that NSO will also "cooperate with any relevant government authority and present the full information we have."
As you may recall, only recently the US Department of Commerce announced that the two Israeli companies NSO Group and Candiru will be added to the blacklist of commercial entities because they are engaged in "activities that are contrary to the interests of national security and US foreign states."
The announcement came after the publication of a project by several media outlets, which included indications that NSO's Pegasus software was involved in tracking dozens of journalists, human rights activists and political leaders, although it is unclear if such use was made and how aware NSO Group was.
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