Investigators discovered that a company called the NSO Group, an Israeli outfit that sells software that invisibly tracks a target’s mobile phone, was responsible for the intrusions.
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Pro-democracy activist Ahmed Mansoor, who has in the past been targeted for his work against human rights violations in the United Arab Emirates, received two suspicious text messages this week.
Bill Marczak, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab said: “This is the first time we’ve seen that in the wild…” They traced the previously unknown spyware back to an Israeli-based company called the NSO Group.
Apple released an emergency patch Thursday to fix a security loophole in iPhones and iPads.
Apple has patched a vulnerability in the iOS operating system that hackers tried to exploit to spy on the smartphone of a human rights lawyer.
Earlier this month, Mansoor reported a data breach of his device to USA cybersecurity companies, the release said.
If Mansoor clicked on that link with “secrets”, his iPhone would have been turned into a “sophisticated bugging device”, and UAE security agencies would be able to turn on his iPhone’s camera and microphone, record his and everything surrounding Mansoor.
The researchers have contacted Apple and the company has immediately brought a fix for the security flaw, which was distributed as an automatic update to iPhone 6.
Apple has issued a new security update, in response to notifications by experts of vulnerabilities on mobile phone software that could be taken advantage of. Working with a United States mobile security company, researchers there identified it as an exploit connected to NSO Group, an Israeli company best known for selling a government-exclusive “lawful intercept” spyware product called Pegasus. “NSO’s mission is to help make the world a safer place, by providing authorized governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime”, said Zamir Dahbash, NSO spokesman, in a statement to USA TODAY.
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According to the reports, an iPhone could be taken under the control of a hacker with a single tap of a finger.
