Reuters reports that at least nine iPhones belonging to US State Department officials have been hacked. The successful cyberattack was carried out with the help of Pegasus spyware, created by employees of the Israeli company NSO Group. Information about this incident was shared by four sources familiar with the event.
Hackers could hack iPhones of US State Department employees
According to reports, the devices of US State Department employees who are either in Uganda or dealing with issues in East African countries were hacked. We do not know by whom and for what purpose the cyber attack was carried out. In turn, NSO Group said in a statement that it has no confirmation that attackers used its hacking tools.
At the same time, it intends to investigate the breach at the request of Reuters. If they get confirmation that there was a hack and that tools created by NSO Group were used, the company will block them and file a lawsuit based on this fact. The Israelis are ready to cooperate with any government structures and are ready to provide the full information they possess.
Apple, the US State Department and representatives of the Ugandan embassy in Washington declined to comment.
The iPhone has a serious security problem
Apple fans have one stereotype associated with the iPhone — iOS is virtually invulnerable when it comes to malware or hacking. They are sure that its software is one of the most stable, thoughtful and secure. But one more fact makes us say that it would be a great exaggeration to talk about the absolute invulnerability of the iPhone.
But it wasn't competitors and hackers who came to the conclusion that Apple's smartphone has a weak security system, but the court. It was the judge who came to the conclusion that passwords, biometric data and facial recognition systems are not enough to protect user data.
The story itself began on June 3 of this year in São Paulo, when an attacker stole an iPhone 12. After the theft, the attacker was able to change the device's password, disable the "Find Me" function and gain access to personal data. This was enough to conduct financial transactions on behalf of the owner of the stolen iPhone.
By the way, this is not an isolated case. We've seen reports of another iPhone theft in Brazil, and the attackers' goal was to hack the owners' bank accounts to steal their own funds. And they managed to successfully jailbreak not only the iPhone, but also banking applications, which usually have a different password.
