At least nine iPhones belonging to US State Department officials have been jailbroken, Reuters reported. The successful cyberattack was carried out using the Pegasus spy software, created by employees of the Israeli company NSO Group. Information about this incident was shared by four sources familiar with the incident.
Hackers could have jailbroken iPhones of US Department of State employees
According to reports, the devices of the US State Department employees who are either in Uganda or dealing with issues of countries in East Africa were subjet of a hack. We do not know who and for what purpose the cyberattack took place. In turn, the NSO Group company in its statement announced that it has no confirmation that the attackers used its hacking tools.
At the same time, they intend to investigate the hacking at the request of Reuters. If they get confirmation that there was a hacking and tools created by NSO Group, the company will block them and initiate legal proceedings on this fact. The Israelis are ready to cooperate with any government agencies and are ready to provide full information that they will own.
For now, Apple, the US State Department and officials at the Ugandan Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
Gizchina News of the week
iPhone has serious security weakness
Apple fans have one stereotype associated with the iPhone – iOS is almost invulnerable when it comes to malware or jailbreak. They are sure that its software is one of the most stable, thoughtful and secure. But another fact makes us say that it would be a great exaggeration to talk about the absolute invulnerability of the iPhone.
It was not competitors or hackers who came to the conclusion that the Apple smartphone has a weak security system; but the court. The judge concluded that passwords, biometrics and facial recognition systems are not enough to protect user data.
The story itself began on June 3 this year in Sao Paulo, when an attacker stole iPhone 12. After the theft, the perpetrator was able to change the device password, disable the Find My function, and gain access to personal data. This was enough to carry out financial transactions on behalf of the owner of the stolen iPhone.
By the way, this is not an isolated case. We had seen another theft of iPhone in Brazil and the aim of the attackers was to hack into the bank accounts of the owners; in order to steal personal funds. And they managed to successfully jailbreak not only the iPhone; but also banking applications, which usually have a different password.
