The American firm Apple called on its customers to update their iPhones on Thursday after an attempt to infect them with spyware produced and sold by an Israeli company, two global companies said.
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Ahmed Mansoor, a well-known human rights defender and dissident in the United Arab Emirates, alerted Citizen Lab to the spyware after receiving an unusual text message on August 10. Instead of clicking, he forwarded the message to researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.
The malware was detailed in a report from Citizen Lab and Lookout, and is said to be “one of the most sophisticated pieces of cyber-espionage software ever seen”.
Apple’s extremely fast step in releasing security update helps the users to keep their device safe from spywares. The initiative hasn’t even started yet, but a group of researchers have already uncovered a highly risky spyware product ready to take over a person’s iPhone. NSO openly sells software that it says can track a person’s mobile phone – and many of its clients are governments.
It is hard to know exactly what NSO Group does; it doesn’t even have a website.
NSO Chief Executive Shalev Hulio referred questions to spokesman Zamir Dahbash, who said the company “cannot confirm the specific cases” covered in the Citizen Lab and Lookout reports. From that point on, the malware can be used to spy on virtually every aspect of the phone’s use, from phone calls and text messages to calendar data and video feeds.
It said that it was being used to attack high-value targets. In addition to himself, the portal’s lead investigator, Daniel Lizarraga, and another prominent journalist, Salvador Camarena, received texts.
Apple has issued a security update to resolve the issue.
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Apple Inc. issued a fix for the vulnerabilities Thursday, just ahead of the reports’ release, working at a blistering pace for which the Cupertino, California-based company was widely praised.
