Apple Releases Security Update iOS 9.3.5 Against Spyware | TechTree.com

Apple Releases Security Update iOS 9.3.5 Against Spyware

An activist located the spyware on the iPhone, which prompted Apple to release the iOS 9.3.5 update, against the said vulnerabilities.

 

It was a normal day for Ahmed Mansoor until he received a message on his iPhone, about a link which would reveal details about the torture taking place in the prisons of the United Arab Emirates. The only bait, would have been to click on the link provided in the message, but the human rights activist instead reported it to the Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog, who then unearthed an Israel spying software, and over the next couple of weeks, set off a chain reaction. In the end, Apple had to release the iOS 9.3.5 update and prevent anymore hacking and stealing of private information from taking place for millions of iPhone users.

After The Associated Press screenshots of the spam text were shown by Mansoor, he did comment saying, “It feels really good,” and considering what he did for a large groups of users, he would well be justified. The craft involved here is that the link had been engineered to work on the specific weakness of the Apple iOS which would give hackers remote access to private data on iPhone users, especially in the Gulf. With Israel putting in mentionable efforts, to garner efforts in the Middle East, it becomes a geo-political issue as well, combined with the technical security issue, as pointed out earlier.

As per details with NDTV, a couple of reports issued on Thursday, one by Lookout, a San Francisco mobile security firm, and another by Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs, outlined how the program could completely compromise a device with the tap of a finger. If Mansoor had touched the link, he would have given his hackers free reign to eavesdrop on calls, harvest messages, activate his camera and drain the phone's trove of personal data. Both the labs also pointed out that the firm in question is the NSO Group, who have been behind the spying software. When the executives of the firm were approached, they gave no clear answers regarding the same; in fact, they declined to comment, by mentioning they could not speak on specific cases.

However, Apple has already issued a security patch of 39.1 MB for users to download. So, in case, someone has missed out, please download the security patch for the safety of your personal data and other communications on the iPhone. The mentionable effort in this case has been of Apple developers, who worked at break neck speed to ensure that the security patch was issued and put out to users when they needed it.

Image via razorianfly.com

 


TAGS: Apple, Apple iPhone, iOS, Privacy, Security patches

 
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