Rome – Imagine clicking a link to a text message received from your iPhone and have seen that you do not care. Put it back in tasce and peace. Yet from that moment someone theoretically could have taken total control of your device thanks to what has been called “the most powerful and sophisticated malware discovered so far in iOS,” the operating system of Melafonino and iPad. Quiet, Apple fixed the flaw in record time with the update iOS 9.3.5, just go in the general settings. To find out everything – and here they open disturbing scenarios – was a political opponent of the United Arab Emirates, Ahmed Mansoor , which like his other friends militants found himself face to face with this malware. He has received the message – which spoke broadly of a dossier about detainees in UAE prisons – but has seen fit to not click the link contained in the text. He shot all the computer scientists of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. These, together with the computer security company Lookout, have found that the link in question was able to install a program using three holes present for years in the system. That Apple itself and other hackers were never identified. After the necessary checks, the researchers warned that Apple was immediately put to work developing the patches in the Update distributed today to all iPhone and iPad owners. “Once infected, the iPhone Mansoor would become a digital spy in his pocket – the researchers said – able to activate on request his room and microphone to spy on any activity in the vicinity of the device, record calls (WhatsApp, Skype, Viber and others) , read the logs of the various messages sent by chat and track his movements. ” Virtually everything. It is no any malware, it quickly became apparent. It is highly professional. A spokesman for the NSO, Zamir Dahbash , was quick to learn that the company “is not able to confirm specific cases” such as those reported in the report by the Citizen Lab and Lookout, stressing that “the contract signed with clients requires that our products are only used in a legal context. These products can only be used for the prevention and investigation of crimes.” Statements of ritual, already heard in similar cases as in that Italy’s Hacking team that for years has been in the crosshairs of hacktivists (and not only) for for providing surveillance software at the very least governments that respect human rights. A year ago, the Milan-based company was the victim of a hacker attack, with web publishing commercially confidential material. But as he hits his Pegasus objectives? Researchers at the Citizen Lab analyzed for now only the mechanism that leads to take control of the iPhone 6 and thanks to the analysis of this code have been able to point the finger at Israeli Company. Who wants to take the smartphone control exploits a bug in Safari that allows – through a malicious link – to execute a code that goes straight into the “heart” of iOS. Here, two flaws allow you to eliminate any system protection and install malware Ext Trident who begins to communicate with the server indicator. Not only: the virus is resistant even if you try to reset or update the device. Continuing to control everything. Citizen Lab has not directly accused the Emirates of having ordered the attack on Mansoor with Pegasus, but it showed that in the past other cyber attacks on activists opposed to the regime – but also journalists and public figures – have called into question the government. The dissident said to have been attacked in the past by software Hacking Team and Gamma. The question as always is global. Citizen Lab found that among the victims of this malware are also a Mexican journalist and a political minority party in Kenya and that the domain names set Pegasus seem to refer to targets in Uzbekistan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
- Topics:
- nse
- security
- citizen lab
- toronto
- Canada
- United Arab Emirates
- software
- Starring:
- Ahmed Mansoor
- Zamir Dahbash
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