A botched hack attempt using “sophisticated spyware package” allegedly tailored by an Israeli group on the iPhone of an Arab activist has triggered Apple to issue an “important” security update for its mobile operating system, iOS.
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Suffice as to say if you own an Apple device of any sort it’s highly recommended that you install the latest iOS update as soon as possible.
The software was only discovered when prominent human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor received a suspicious looking text message and alerted Bill Marczak, a researcher at Citizen Lab.
According to Citizen Lab, the links in the text message belong to “an exploit infrastructure connected to NSO Group, an Israel-based “cyber war” company that sells Pegasus, a government-exclusive “lawful intercept” spyware product”. It could be used to target any iPhone in the world; all it would take would be for an unsuspecting user to click a link sent in a text message.
(NATIONAL) – Motherboard.com, a well known tech-oriented website explained it this way: earlier this month a man named Ahmed Mansoor, a 46-year-old human rights activist from the United Arab Emirates, got “a unusual text message from a number he did not recognize on his iPhone”. iOS 9.3.5 addresses a major security flaw that allows hackers to access targeted iPhones via spyware, the Associated Press reported. They used fake domains to try and disguise themselves as legitimate groups like the Red Cross, news organizations, and large tech companies.
Although Apple did manage to get a security patch out, blocking the malware, it is sort of scary to see how easy it was for NSO to get into the iPhone and take full control of the device.
The program could also record messages from Facebook’s (FB) WhatsApp and listen to Viber calls while also tracking Mansoor’s movement.
iPhone owners, you may want to update your phone immediately.
Both reports suggested it was an Israeli firm called NSO Group which was the source of the spyware. The update includes fixes to vulnerabilities that pose a serious threat and have been utilized to launch attacks on public users.
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The tools and technology needed for such an attack, which was essentially a remote jailbreak of the iPhone, could be worth as much as $1 million according to experts.
