Washington: According to reports, the iPhones of at least 11 US State Department personnel were hacked by the Israel-based NSO Group, which sells the infamous Pegasus spyware to governments. Apple has told 11 US State Department employees in Uganda that their iPhones have been hacked, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

According to a person familiar with the situation, investigators "have linked the attack to a programme produced by NSO Group, an Israeli technology company that was banned by the Biden administration." According to the report, the compromised phones were linked to State Department email addresses. According to media reports, an NSO Group spokeswoman stated that the company would investigate the allegations. The Joe Biden administration has placed the NSO Group on an export ban list, preventing it from getting certain types of technology from the United States.

Apple has begun delivering danger notification notifications to victims of state-sponsored hackers in Thailand, El Salvador, and Uganda, following the filing of a lawsuit against the NSO Group. Apple has acknowledged that the exploit used by the NSO Group to install Pegasus on Apple devices may have targeted a limited percentage of its users.

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