The Pegasus spyware developed by Israeli company NSO Group was used to hack the iPhones of 11 US diplomats in recent months, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing alerts from Apple to the impacted individuals.
The recent attacks were focused on US officials working in East Africa, the report said. The Pegasus spyware gives government clients the ability to steal files, listen to conversations and track the movements of the infected device.
While some of the targeted individuals included foreign service officers for the US State Departments, others included locals who worked for embassies.
A source familiar with the development told the Wall Street Journal that the hacked phones had been linked to email addresses from the US State Department.
The White House National Security Council in a statement Friday said the USA is acutely concerned that NSO Group’s software poses a serious counterintelligence and security risk to American personnel.
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The US administration placed several companies involved in the development and proliferation of these tools on the Commerce Department’s entity list.
In November, the US Department of Commerce included the NSO Group in its list of entities engaging in activities contrary to US national security.
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The group’s Pegasus spyware has purportedly been used to spy on the phones of about 50,000 targets, including politicians, businessmen, activists, journalists and opposition figures around the world.
Apple later in November launched a lawsuit against NSO Group for the surveillance and targeting of the company’s customers. They are also seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices.
Sputnik / ABC Flash Point News 2024.
Spying is based on theft and unfriendly behavior?
Theft -yes the USA uses it to gather industrial information that they could use to their benefit likewise the UK — unfriendly– of course but when did that worry them ?
Part of the business, and laws are made for the poor, and for the elite to ignore ?
In the UK the laws protecting the poor have been de-toothed by the Tory Party under the guise of “allowing the business world more freedom ” .
The USA has far superior public protection laws — I just wish they were implemented here as the UK is a third world US “protectorate ” as far as those who are poor are concerned .
Pegasus spyware would be used in all ‘5 Eyes’ countries. That is why there have been amazing immediate tracking and arrests of unlawful citizens lately.- in our so called democratic autocratic states
There is an option but its expensive –buy a cellnet phone that runs on LInux and don’t use Google as your search engine that helps -back doors are easy to hack in M$ . Or if you aren’t worried about the Chinese government spying on you use their cellnet phones. There is more too it but ordinary members of the public wont likely be affected by Pegasus -unless you rise to prominence. The “Five Eyes ” has expanded and also clones are up and running in various other EU countries- I stopped worrying about it long ago – not prominent… Read more »
Didn’t the morons sanction the company making Pegasus recently? And didn’t it go bankrupt after that or ceased operation (to come back under another guise)
The NSO Group ( Israel ) is still in business –in the USA its known as Westbridge –it does have headquarters in London and is still being used even in 2024 .
Okay, thx for additional info, that is how crooks work, acting between the laws?
It shows how powerful the Israeli Lobby is in relation to the Western world.