Embarrassing: FBI investigation found that it was illegal use of iPhone hacker tools

CTOnews.com August 2 News, the New York Times reported in April this year that US government agencies purchased NSO Group software from contractors to crack iPhone and obtain relevant content.

The White House responded at the time that it had no knowledge of the matter and said it had asked the Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) to investigate. Embarrassingly, the survey results show that the department that buys and uses NSO Group software is FBI itself.

CTOnews.com quoted the New York Times on Monday as saying that the White House blacklisted NSO Group in November 2021, and just a few days later, FBI signed a purchase agreement with contractor Riva Networks.

FBI believes in the investigation report that the cooperation happened unwittingly. Stoffer Christopher Wray, director of FBI, said the contract was terminated in April after discovering the problem.

The FBI has yet to explain why this happened, but the tool used is not the infamous "Pegasus", but a tool called "Landmark". Instead of directly hacking into the phone, Landmark can narrow it down and track the location of the device.