Phones of US State Department Staffers Hacked Using Israeli Firm NSO Group

The phones of 11 US State Department employees were hacked using technology from Israel's NSO Group, the world's most infamous hacker-for-hire company, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

The employees were all located in Uganda and included some foreign service officers, said the person, who was not authorised to speak publicly about an ongoing investigation. Some local Ugandan employees of the department appear to have been among the 11 hacked, the person said.

The hacking is the first known instance of NSO Group's spyware, known as Pegasus, being used against US government personnel.