Apple has issued an emergency update in its product right when it is all set to unveil several new devices in its event today.
Security researchers at Apple uncovered a critical vulnerability in its own product on Monday that allows highly invasive spyware from Israel’s NSO Group to infect anyone’s iPhone or Mac computer with just a single click. Apple has issued emergency software updates to fix this critical vulnerability.
Researchers at Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto, discovered that a Saudi activist’s iPhone had been infected with an advanced form of spyware from NSO after which Apple’s security team had worked around the clock to fix the issue.
Pegasus’ zero-click infection
Pegasus’s zero-click infection can turn on a user’s camera, microphone and record messages, voice texts, calls, emails – even the ones sent through encrypted messaging and phone apps like Signal – sends them back to NSO’s clients at governments around the world.
A senior researcher at Citizen Lab John Scott-Railton said that this spyware can do everything an iPhone user can do on their device and more. More than 1.65 billion Apple products all across the world have been vulnerable to NSO’s spyware since March this year.
In the past, victims learned their devices were infected by spyware only after receiving a suspicious link texted to their phone or email and sharing the link with journalists or cybersecurity experts. NSO’s zero-click capability meant victims no such prompt and the flaw enabled full access to a person’s digital life.
