New NSO spyware scandal

The phones of 11 US State Department employees in Uganda were hacked with spyware from Israel’s NSO Group, the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire company, a person familiar with the matter says. The hacking is the first known instance of NSO’s trademark Pegasus spyware being used against US government personnel. It was not known what individual or entity used the NSO technology to hack the accounts, or what information was sought. Last month the US Commerce Department blacklisted NSO, barring US technology from being used by the company. Apple last week sued NSO to effectively shut down its hacking of iPhones and other Apple products, calling the Israeli company ‘‘amoral 21st-century mercenaries’’. Marketed to governments for use against terrorists and criminals, Pegasus has been abused by NSO customers to spy on human rights activists, journalists and politicians from Saudi Arabia to Mexico.