State Department iPhones Hacked Using NSO Group . Software

The Iphone At least nine employees from county administration The United States was hacked by a hacker who used sophisticated spyware developed by NSO . groupIt is based in Israel, according to four sources close to the matter.

Affected by attacks in recent months Ugandan officials Two sources said they focused on issues related to the East African country.

Intrusions represent the most widespread known attack on US officials via technology NSO . group. Reuters was unable to determine who carried out the latest cyber attacks.

NSO . group It said in a statement on Thursday that it had no indication that its tools had been used, but that it had canceled the accounts involved and said it would conduct an investigation based on the Reuters report.

An NSO spokesperson said, “If our investigation shows that these actions did indeed take place using NSO tools, the said user will be permanently removed and legal action will be taken,” adding that the company “will also cooperate with any relevant government authority and provide the information that we will have.”

NSO . group It has long said that it sells its products only to intelligence clients and government agencies, helps them monitor security threats, and is not directly involved in surveillance operations.

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.

spokesperson county administration He declined to comment on the intrusions, referring instead to the recent decision by Ministry of Commerce To put the Israeli company on the entity list, making it difficult for American companies to do business with it.

NSO . group Another spyware company “was added to the list on the grounds that it developed and provided spyware to foreign governments that used this tool to target government officials, journalists, businessmen, activists, academics and embassy staff,” the official said. Ministry of Commerce Last month.

Programming NSO . group Not only does it capture messages, encrypted photos, and other confidential information from infected phones, it can also turn them into recording devices to monitor surroundings, according to product manuals reviewed by Reuters.

Attention An apple Affected users did not specify the originator of the spyware used.