An Israeli company enabled the hacking of American citizens’ phones – possibly including some belonging to government officials.

The NSO Group’s spy software used a security vulnerability in WhatsApp to hijack the phones of at least 1,400 people in the spring, a Reuters report revealed on Thursday.

The news agency spoke to sources familiar with an internal WhatsApp investigation into the breach.

The targets were spread across more than 20 countries, many of them US allies, Reuters reported.

Their sources stated that a “significant” number of the known victims were high-profile government and military officials.

Some of the victims are in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Mexico, Pakistan and India, according to Reuters’ sources.