Kremlin says NSA and Apple are behind “clickless” exploits hitting Kaspersky iPhones
Moscow-based security firm Kaspersky has been hit by an advanced cyberattack that used clickless exploits to infect the iPhones of several dozen employees with malware that collects microphone recordings, photos, geolocation, and other data, company officials said.
We are quite confident that Kaspersky was not the main target of this cyberattack," Eugene Kaspersky, founder of the company, wrote in a post published on Thursday. The coming days will bring more clarity and further details on the worldwide proliferation of the spyware."
According to officials inside the Russian National Coordination Centre for Computer Incidents, the attacks were part of a broader campaign by the US National Security Agency that infected several thousand iPhones belonging to people inside diplomatic missions and embassies in Russia, specifically from those located in NATO countries, post-Soviet nations, Israel, and China. A separate alert from the FSB, Russia's Federal Security Service, alleged Apple cooperated with the NSA in the campaign. An Apple representative denied the claim.