Hacking the cell phones of 9 American officials with Pegasus spy software

According to an unnamed source, Reuters reports that Apple phones made by US State Department officials who were in Uganda or involved in related affairs have been hacked in the past few months, IRNA reported Saturday. .
The sources claim that it is not clear who hacked the smartphones of these American officials.
This is the first time that the phone of American officials has been reported by Pegasus spyware. A list of phone numbers hacked by Pegasus spyware has previously been leaked to the media. The list also included US officials, but it was not clear if all of the attacks were successful.
A spokesman for NSO said in response to the Reuters report: “If investigations show that such actions were taken by NSO tools, the customer will be permanently blocked and legal action will be taken against him.”
According to IRNA, Apple has sued the Israeli company “NSO Group”, which was blacklisted by the Biden government earlier this month.
Apple Corps has accused the Israeli company, which also makes the Pegasus malware, of targeting and monitoring Apple users.
Last month, the United States blacklisted the Israeli company NSO, whose controversial Pegasus spy software has sparked worldwide controversy.
The Pegasus spyware scandal erupted less than three months ago, following a report by several global media outlets about the spyware infiltration into the cell phones of several political activists, journalists and political figures around the world.
A comprehensive investigation by more than 17 news organizations revealed that spy software called Pegasus, made by the Israeli technology company NSO, was used to spy on the cell phones of hundreds of journalists, political and social activists, as well as politicians around the world.
According to CNBC, one of the important personalities whose phone has been hacked by this spyware is the fiancée of Jamal Khashgechi, who was assassinated by Saudi government agents in 2018.
The countries that have made the most use of this software include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Researchers were able to identify more than a thousand people through research and interviews on four continents: several members of the Arab royal family, at least 65 business directors, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials. Their phones were hacked by Pegasus software.
The first Israeli spy program, Pegasus, was revealed in 2016; The cell phone of “Emirati activist” Ahmad Mansour was hacked by a series of highly advanced spyware programs, after which Mansour was arrested and imprisoned.
The most prominent feature of this program is the “ZERO click” technology or hacking the phone without the user contacting the suspicious link, and it is the most advanced technique for hacking the phone and spying on its users without their knowledge, because it is very expensive and costs more than three million dollars.
The Zionist company has stated that the main goal of the program is to fight what is called terrorism, but the victims targeted – according to British security expert Jake Moore – were human rights activists, journalists, politicians and some wealthy people, so each The person behind the program is targeting specific people.
The danger also lies in the ability to infiltrate the most precise privacy, as Facebook explicitly accused the Israeli company of stealing and hacking its popular WhatsApp app and spying on hundreds of specific users.
In 2019, the software infiltrated WhatsApp social media and spied on millions of users of the program, made headlines in the media.