The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) accused the United States of being behind a cyberattack against thousands of Apple devices, while cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab claimed to have discovered spyware on iPhones used by its employees.
The FSB said on Thursday that the US National Security Agency “cooperates closely” with Apple and thousands of Apple devices were “infected” by leaking phone numbers of people working in Russian embassies abroad.
For its part, Kaspersky claimed that its researchers had found a hitherto unknown malicious program (‘malware’) on Apple devices and that dozens of its employees had been attacked.
Eugene Kaspersky, the founder of the Russian-based multinational antivirus software, said the devices received an “invisible” message with a malicious attachment that installed spyware.
The spyware will then “silently” transmit private information to servers, including microphone recordings, instant messaging photos, geolocations and other data.
“We are sure that Kaspersky was not the main target of this cyber attack,” the founder said in a blog post.
According to the company, the oldest traces of the infection date back to 2019 and “the attack continues.”
In March 2022, US regulators declared Kaspersky a “national security threat” after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.
Founded in 1997, Kaspersky has been accused of being close to Russian intelligence services. The multinational company has 400 million customers worldwide.
bureau / de / pc / s
