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.
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Citizen Lab has pointed the finger at NSO Group, the makers of a software product called Pegasus which, the company says, is designed for “lawful interception” of data by governments. Rather than clicking on the malicious link, Mansoor forwarded the email to the citizens lab to look in to thr matter.
iPhone users need to update to iOS 9.3.5 immediately as it contains a fix to 3 specific vulnerabilities that till date had probably been marked irrelevant.
Researchers there worked with San Francisco-based mobile security firm Lookout. In a blog post Thursday on its website, Lookout researchers said they found a “sophisticated, targeted, and persistent mobile attack on iOS using three zero-day vulnerabilities we call ‘Trident'”.
This could have included using the iPhone’s camera and microphone to record activity in the device’s physical vicinity, as well as physically tracking its location.
In a statement that stopped short of acknowledging that the spyware was its own, the NSO Group said its mission was to provide “authorised governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime”.
“The company sells only to authorized governmental agencies, and fully complies with strict export control laws and regulations”, NSO Group spokesperson Zamir Dahbash told The New York Times, adding that they have no control over how the software they design are used.
There’s a new case of cyber-espionage and now iPhone users are the target. It advises customers to download the latest version of its iOS, version 9.3.5, for security protection.
Apple has issued a new software update after alleged spyware that could compromise the iPhone was reported in the Middle East.
Still, the fix is out there and easy to grab, so just go to Settings General Software Update, and take care of it right away.
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“We realized that we were looking at something that no one had ever seen in the wild before”. That’s until Ahmed Mansoor decided not to click on a link allowing the NSO Group full access to his iPhone, instead giving the world full access to what the company is really capable of. They made a decision to launch a security update for the users and to keep them safe from any activities on any suspicious links.
