Russian security services have accused Apple of cooperating with US spy agencies in a plot to hack iPhones using “invisible iMessages” containing spyware.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it uncovered a US spy operation that compromised thousands of iPhones using sophisticated surveillance software.
“The FSB has uncovered an intelligence action by US special services using Apple mobile devices,” the FSB said in a statement.
The FSB claimed the plot showed “close cooperation” between Apple and the National Security Agency (NSA), the US agency responsible for cryptographic intelligence and security and communications.
The FSB has provided no evidence that Apple cooperated with or knew about the alleged spy campaign targeting its devices.
In a statement, Apple strongly denied the allegation, saying, “We have never worked with any government to insert a backdoor into an Apple product and never will.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Thursday it uncovered a US spy operation that compromised thousands of iPhones using spyware.
The NSA declined to comment.
The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said several thousand Apple devices had been infected, including those of Russian domestic users as well as foreign diplomats based in Russia and the former Union. Soviet.
The FSB said US hackers compromised Israeli, Syrian, Chinese and NATO diplomats in the spying campaign.
Israeli officials declined to comment. Chinese, Syrian and NATO officials were not immediately available for comment.
Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab said dozens of its employees’ devices were compromised in the operation.
“The attack is carried out using an invisible iMessage with a malicious attachment, which, using a number of vulnerabilities in the iOS operating system, runs on a device and installs spyware,” the Kremlin-linked company said in a blog post.
“The deployment of the spyware is entirely hidden and does not require any action on the part of the user.
“The spyware then discreetly transmits private information to remote servers: microphone recordings, instant messaging photos, geolocation, and data about a number of other activities of the owner of the infected device.”
The FSB claimed the plot showed “close cooperation” between Apple and the National Security Agency (NSA), the US agency responsible for cryptographic intelligence and security and communications.
Kaspersky CEO Eugene Kaspersky said on Twitter that dozens of his employees’ phones were compromised in the operation, which his company described as “an extremely complex and professionally targeted cyberattack” that targeted employees of “senior and middle management”.
Kaspersky researcher Igor Kuznetsov told Reuters his company independently discovered anomalous traffic on its corporate Wi-Fi network earlier this year.
He said Kaspersky only reported its findings to Russia’s computer emergency response team earlier on Thursday.
He said he could not comment on Moscow’s allegation that the Americans were responsible for the hack or that thousands more were targeted.
“It’s very difficult to attribute anything to anyone,” he said.
In a blog post, Kaspersky said that the oldest traces of infection discovered date back to 2019.
“As of this writing in June 2023, the attack is ongoing,” the company said. He added that although his staff were affected, “we are fully confident that Kaspersky was not the primary target of this cyberattack.”
According to Harvard University’s Belfer Center Cyber Power Index 2022, the United States is the world’s leading cyber power in terms of intent and capability, followed by China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Australia.
The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry have stressed the importance of the issue.
Apple strongly denied the Kremlin allegation (pictured is a view of the Kremlin Senate Palace from Red Square in Moscow) saying: “We have never worked with any government to insert a backdoor into a product Apple and never will.”
“Hidden data collection was carried out through software vulnerabilities in US-made cellphones,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“US intelligence services have used computer companies for decades to collect large-scale data about unwitting internet users,” the department said.
Russian officials said the plot was uncovered as part of a joint effort by officers from the FSB and those from the Federal Guard Service (FSO), a powerful agency that runs Kremlin bodyguards and was also formerly the Ninth Directorate of the KGB.
Officials in Russia, who Western spies say have built a highly sophisticated domestic surveillance structure, have long questioned the security of American technology.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said everyone in the presidential administration knew gadgets such as iPhones were “absolutely transparent”.
Earlier this year, the Kremlin told officials involved in preparations for Russia’s 2024 presidential election to stop using Apple iPhones over fears the devices were vulnerable to Western intelligence agencies, reported Kommersant newspaper.
