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It was the wisdom of an activist of Arab human rights which allowed discover a very serious vulnerability on iPhone and what has been described as one of the programs software most sophisticated spy ever identified.
the activist in question is called Ahmed Mansoor, and on 10 and 11 August last received A a series of message s text links promising to reveal secrets about alleged torture in prisons in UAE.
the links seemed reliable, but he hesitated to open them.
If they had, iPhone would have been immediately hacked , ensure the recognized security firms digital Citizen Lab and Lookout, which identified the program.
“The program converts your own phone a spy in your pocket ” he told a representative of Citizen Lab at the BBC.
“You can use your camera and microphone to record what happens, Whatsapp record your conversations and monitor your location,” he said.
“It is program software sophisticated spy we’ve seen ” say for his part in Lookout.
The companies did not release information until Apple corrected them with the latest update of iOS system, published on Thursday.
But who is responsible?
“Trafficker cyber weapons”
Both Citizen Lab as Lookout point to the same suspect: NSO Group , a company based Israel American-owned, which is no stranger to Latin America .
According to Forbes, the company was founded in 2010 with funding and expertise Intelligence Unit 8200, belonging to the armed forces of Israel.
And is currently valued at more than billion.
Although they are presented as toolmakers to fight crime and terrorism, security specialists describe NSO Group as a “ dealer cyber weapons “.
And according to Privacy International, an organization dedicated to report privacy violations by states and companies, government institutions Mexico and Panama bought their surveillance products.
The publication Business Insider says NSO Group received 8 million the Panamanian government for its best-known spyware: Pegasus
And, according to Forbes, the transaction occurred during the administration of Ricardo Martinelli , who is currently being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor for the purchase and disappearance of spy equipment.
In the case of Mexico, was the security company Citizen Lab reported that the journalist Rafael Cabrera was the target of “cyber espionage”, always by the Pegasus system.
special Achievement
Moreover, to those skilled in electronic security, which NSO Group has just done with the iPhone is special .
The firm took advantage of flaws in Apple’s iOS operating system to design a spyware ( spyware ) installed with only click a link.
In the language hacker, these vulnerabilities are called Zero Day ( “Day Zero”), and three are almost impossible to find. But l os hackers NSO Group found three .
“These failures are rare and extremely lucrative,” said Dave Lee, specializes in technology journalist the BBC.
“the ability to access one of them can be sold at more than a million dollars ” he added.
The work of Citizen Lab and Lookout allowed Apple fix security flaws and l a recommendation to users is to install the latest operating system upgrade iOS to avoid being exposed.
But Apple does not sing victory for winning this battle.
They know that armies of hackers increasingly sophisticated, seeking to discover new faults in the system.
The million dollar business that moves behind it, even encouraged by governments, is a powerful stimulus.
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