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Government Hackers Use Mobile Spyware to Target US Diplomats’ Phones, Schiff Says

  • Israeli vendor NSO Group is one of dozens of sellers
  • Proliferation is a major threat, internet watchdog group says
Adam Schiff
Adam Schiff

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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Government hackers are likely using commercial spyware to breach phones belonging to US officials stationed around the world, the chairman of the House intelligence committee said on Wednesday.

Reports last year that attackers infiltrated the phones of US diplomats in Uganda using a kind of spyware known as Pegasus, developed by the Israeli vendor NSO Group, provide only a hint of the scale of the issue, said Representative Adam Schiff, the California Democrat and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.