Pegasus took advantage of the gap
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Apple closes vulnerabilities on iPhone and iPod with software update
Website of the Israeli NSO team behind Pegasus tracking software.
Photo: AFP / JOEL SAGET
Cupertino / Toronto The NSO team’s spy software was used to spy on politicians and journalists, among other things. Apple has now closed a security hole in the iPhones used by Pegasus.
The US company Apple has closed a security breach that experts believe can spy on iPhones and other devices. Researcher Organization Citizen Laboratory The vulnerability was discovered while analyzing the phone of a Saudi Arabian activist. Citizen Lab said Monday that the device was infected with Pegasus, an NSO surveillance software.
Apple on Monday released software updates for iPhones and iPods to close the security gap. For security to take effect, updates must be installed by the user. Citizen Lab estimates that vulnerability has been affected since at least February 2021.
The vulnerability is called zero day exploitation. Vulnerabilities are named because they are not known to the software provider or the general public, so they can be used in secret. Among other things, they are specifically searched by intelligence services and used for surveillance activities. Such weak points are considered particularly valuable, and they are generally used specifically against individual target individuals.
According to Apple, the vulnerability can be used with the help of a prepared PDF file. Citizen Laboratory announced the group at a safety break last week.
The NSO was last criticized in mid-July. Opposition members and reporters have been spying on Pegasus, according to the International Federation of Journalists. At the time, 37 smartphones were said to have found traces of successful or offensive attempts by journalists, human rights activists, their family members and businessmen. As with similar previous allegations, the NSO objected that Pegasus was “sold only to law enforcement and intelligence agencies with the sole purpose of saving lives by preventing crime and terrorism.”
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