The iPhones of at least 9 US State Department employees were hacked with spyware developed by NSO Group (Israel).
Citing four close sources, Reuters The attack has been going on for the past few months. The victims are all US State Department officials working in Uganda and people associated with East African countries. Some were identified as having an Apple ID using an email with the state.gov extension.
The damage from the attack has not been revealed, while the identity of the attacker has not been determined.
Photo: Reuters
NSO Group claims that it did not find any indication that its tool was used to attack US officials. However, the company admitted to having terminated the related accounts and will investigate based on the information. Reuters Announced.
This Israeli company is famous for its Pegasus spyware, an application that takes advantage of the iPhone’s zero-day vulnerability, silently infiltrating the phone and reading data on it, including messages and contact information, is different. Last month, Apple sued the company NSO and demanded permanent ban company in the use of its software, services or equipment.
Earlier this year Amnesty International said it had found evidence iPhone 12 hacked by Pegasus, leading to the leak of 50,000 phone numbers. The software is also used to track the relatives of Jamal Khashoggi: journalist Washington Post Murdered. In September, the software to be found on the phones of at least five French ministers.
Last month, the US Department of Commerce placed NSO Group and a similar company on the Entity List on the grounds that the companies “develop and provide spyware to foreign governments.” These tools were used to “defame government officials, journalists, businessmen, activists, academics, and embassy personnel.”
Bao Lam (continue CNBC)
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