Spyware Hacks of Federal Workers Could Run Into Hundreds, Lawmaker Says

A US government probe into how many mobile phones belonging to diplomats and government workers have been infected with spyware could 'easily run to the hundreds,' according to a member of the House Intelligence Committee. From a report: Jim Himes, a Democrat representative from Connecticut, told Bloomberg News that the Biden administration is 'just beginning to get an inkling of the magnitude of the problem.' He predicted that the probe could find that spyware was used against 'hundreds' of federal personnel in 'multiple countries.' Himes was a lead author of a September letter calling on the federal government to better protect US diplomats overseas from spyware and publicly detail instances of such abuse. He received a letter last month written jointly by the Departments of Commerce and State that confirmed commercial spyware has targeted US government personnel serving overseas.

'Spyware technology has sort of moved beyond our ability to ensure that the communications of our diplomats are protected, or even the locations and contacts and photographs of our diplomats are protected. And that's obviously a huge vulnerability,' he said. The official confirmation follows a Reuters report from last year that the iPhones of at least nine State Department employees were hacked with spyware developed by Israel's NSO Group. The employees were either based in Uganda or focused on issues related to the country, according to the report.

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