Adam Kos Apple has filed a lawsuit against NSO Group and its parent company to hold them accountable for targeted surveillance of Apple users. The lawsuit then provides new information about how NSO Group "infected" victims' devices with its Pegasus spyware.
Pegasus can be secretly installed on mobile phones and other devices equipped with various versions of the iOS and Android operating systems. Moreover, the revelations suggest that Pegasus can penetrate all recent iOS up to version 14.6. According to The Washington Post and other sources, Pegasus not only allows monitoring of all communications from the phone (SMS, e-mails, web searches), but also can listen in on phone calls, track location, and covertly use a cell phone's microphone and camera, thereby fully track users.
It could be interest you
Under the auspices of a good cause
NSO says it provides "authorized governments with technology to help them fight terrorism and crime" and has released parts of its contracts that require customers to use its products only to investigate crimes and protect national security. At the same time, she stated that she provides the best protection of human rights within the field. So, as you can see, everything good turns to bad sooner or later anyway.
How to reset Apple ID password on iPhone:
The spyware is named after the mythical winged horse Pegasus - it is a Trojan that "flies through the air" (to target phones). How poetic, right? In order to prevent Apple from further abusing and harming its users, theoretically including us and you, Apple is seeking a permanent injunction to prohibit NSO Group from using any Apple software, services or devices. The sad thing about all of this is that NSO's surveillance technology is sponsored by the state itself.
However, the attacks are only aimed at a very small number of users. The history of the misuse of this spyware to attack journalists, activists, dissidents, academics and government officials has also been publicly documented. "Apple devices are the most secure consumer hardware on the market," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, calling for definite change.
It could be interest you
Updates will protect you
Apple's legal complaint provides new information about NSO Group's FORCEDENTRY tool, which uses a now-patched vulnerability that was previously used to infiltrate a victim's Apple device and install the latest version of Pegasus spyware. The lawsuit seeks to prohibit NSO Group from further harming people using Apple products and services. The lawsuit also seeks damages for gross violations of U.S. federal and state law by NSO Group resulting from its efforts to target and attack Apple and its users.
Keychain settings on iCloud
iOS 15 includes a number of new security protections, including a significant improvement to the BlastDoor security mechanism. Although the NSO Group's spyware continues to evolve, Apple has no longer seen any evidence of successful attacks against devices running iOS 15 and later. So those who update regularly could rest easy for now. "It is unacceptable in a free society to use powerful state-sponsored spyware against those who are trying to make the world a better place," said Ivan Krstić, head of Apple's Security Engineering and Architecture department in the release press release stating the whole case.
It could be interest you
The right measures
To further bolster anti-spyware efforts, Apple is donating $10 million, as well as a possible settlement from the lawsuit, to organizations involved in cyber surveillance research and protection. It also intends to support top researchers with free technical, intelligence and engineering assistance to aid their independent research activities, and will offer any assistance to other organizations doing work in this area if needed.
Apple is also notifying all those users it has discovered may have been the target of an attack. Then, whenever it detects activity consistent with a spyware attack in the future, it will notify affected users in accordance with best practices. It does and will continue to do so not only by e-mail, but also by iMessage if the user has a phone number associated with their Apple ID.
