According to Citizen Lab, Trident is used in a spyware product called Pegasus, which is developed by an organization called NSO Group.
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While executives of the NSO Group have been claiming their spyware worked like a “ghost”, the issue actually emerged on 10 August when Ahmed Mansoor, a human rights activist in the UAE, began receiving suspicious text messages.
To fix the holes, users can obtain a patch through a normal software update issued by Apple in their recent release of a patched version of the mobile software, i.O.S 9.3.5.
The vulnerabilities, known as “zero days” because they were previously unknown to Apple, give the hackers total access to an iPhone through a spear-phishing text message.
Citizen Lab was also alerted to the problem when a human rights activist, Ahmed Mansoor began receiving unusual text messages contain links to information about the torture of UAE citizens.
You can update your iPhone by going to Settings General Software Update.
Hackers can exploit these flaws by injecting spyware – a type of malware that turns the phone into a digital spy – onto the device.
Citizen Lab and Lookout reported the vulnerabilities to Apple, and fixes for the problem have already been patched with today’s release of iOS 9.3.5. The messages reportedly contained information about alleged torture of UAE citizens.
Citizen Lab teamed up with mobile security company Lookout to investigate. Murray is the vice president of security research at San Francisco based Lookout, which focuses on mobile security, says a company is selling hacking software to governments. Once the update has been found, users may be prompted to input their device’s security code before downloading it.
Apple told various U.S. media outlets that it fixed the vulnerabilities as soon it learned about them.
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He said that while the exploit was now targeting high profile targets such as Mansoor, the exploit could eventually be used to target wider audiences.
