Many people assume their iPhones are secure, but new research sent Apple scrambling to fix vulnerabilities that left users at risk.
Spyware relying on three previously unknown, or “zero-day,” flaws in Apple’s iOS mobile operating system for years made it possible for governments to take over victims' phones by tricking them into clicking on a link in a text message, according to new reports from Lookout, a cybersecurity firm that looks for security holes in mobile products, and Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.
"This is the most sophisticated bad actor we have ever seen targeting mobile phones out in the wild," said Mike Murray, vice president of security research at Lookout.
The malware, which the researchers said came from an Israeli company called NSO Group that was bought by the U.S. private equity firm Francisco Partners in 2014, was used to target journalists and activists in some cases, according to Citizen Lab, a group focused on the intersection of technology and information security.
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