At least 50 US government employees have been suspected or confirmed of being targeted by commercial spyware that hacks smartphones to spy on their bosses, the White House said Monday.
A White House official said on a phone call that the U.S. The number of known victims he worked for extends to “at least 10 countries on several continents”. The White House requested that the official not be named as part of the terms of the call.
“Our efforts to identify additional targeted personnel are ongoing, and we clearly cannot rule out more cases,” the official said.
The White House also announced that President Joe Biden would sign an executive order aimed at reducing the misuse of spyware, setting guidelines for the companies that make it. The order gives the White House the power to ban the company’s software across all federal agencies if it is found to have used the spyware to target activists, stifle political dissent or spy on Americans, the official said. Have done
The announcement comes after several revelations in recent years about the use of advanced smartphone spyware by some governments around the world. A 2018 report by The Citizen Lab, a technology and internet project at the University of Toronto, found that one type of spyware was most commonly used by 36 different operators in 45 countries.
The companies behind this spyware form a growing industry that gives governments a way to spy on individuals’ smartphones. Spyware programs have been shown to provide near-term access to a target’s smartphone, even email accounts and microphones to listen in on private conversations.
While spyware companies often say their products are used to catch criminals, they have been repeatedly deployed against journalists, political candidates, researchers and activists around the world, leading to widespread condemnation from human rights advocates. .
There is believed to be only one previous public instance of US officials’ equipment being infected with spyware. In 2021, nine State Department employees were hacked with Pegasus, the flagship program of Israeli spyware company NSO Group, according to a Reuters report. US The U.S. banned the NSO Group, as well as another spyware company, Candiru, around the same time.
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, who has done extensive reporting on Pegasus attacks on the phones of journalists and human rights activists, praised the executive order as a potentially effective way to move the spyware industry toward less abuse. Did.
“Most companies in the industry have a goal of eventually selling to the USA,” Scott-Railton said.
“Now, America is saying: You have two doors. Behind one door is to be ethical and prudent and maybe you’ll get your chance. Behind the proliferation door: Lose our numbers forever. And it centers around profit. Made is a big, powerful thing for the industry.