A number of iPhones used by employees of the United States Department of State have also been targeted by the NSO Group's Pegasus spyware.
At least nine iPhones belonging to US State Department employees have been targeted by the spyware over the past few months, based on information from several sources familiar with the matter.
The employees of the US Ministry of Foreign Affairs who were targeted were divided into two, namely those based in Uganda and those in charge of countries in East Africa.
In addition to this newly revealed hack, previously there were also several phone numbers of several US officials who were also suspected of being targets of Pegasus. But previously it was not clear whether the hack was successful or not.
The NSO Group itself denied the allegations of this hack, and said there was no indication its software was involved in this action. But they then blocked the relevant accounts and promised to investigate.
"If our investigation finds this action is related to NSO software, then the intended consumer's access to the software will be permanently disabled and we will take legal action," said an NSO spokesman.
"We will cooperate with the relevant government authorities and provide the full information we have," he added.
NSO Group also stated that they only sell their products to government-owned law enforcement and intelligence agencies. And the product will only be used to monitor security threats, and not be directly involved in spying operations.
The Ugandan Embassy in Washington DC, USA, did not comment on this matter. Likewise, an Apple spokesperson declined to issue a statement.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the US Foreign Ministry declined to comment. They directed the US Department of Commerce's recent move to add NSO to the Entity List, which means that the Israeli company is prohibited from doing business with US companies.