The American multinational Apple issued an emergency update of its software on Monday to combat a detected fault in iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches that allows you to install spyware.
“This update provides important security improvements and is recommended to all users,” read the description of iOS 14.8 for iPhones in the App Store.
The Cupertino company (California, USA) answered the report published by the Laboratory of the University of Toronto (Canada) Citizen Lab, according to which the Israeli software company Nso Group has been infecting iPhone phones and other Apple devices taking advantage of
This security failure.
The spyware is installed through the IMESSAGE instant messaging program and affects both iOS (mobile operating system) and Macos (computers) and Watches (watches).
By exploiting the vulnerability of the system, this “spyware” is installed without the need for the user to perform any operation, and affects all versions of the operating systems except those issued on Monday.
To update the operating system on an iPhone, the user must go to Settings / General / Program update and there download the iOS 14.8 version.
In the Mac and Apple Watch the process is similar.
Citizen Lab discovered the vulnerability of the system and its exploitation by NSO Group when finding an iPhone of a Saudi activist had been infected with the spyware baptized as “Pegasus”.
“Pegasus” allows the author of the espionage access to the activities of the infected device, as well as the camera, the microphone, the photographs, the location, the text messages, e-mails and calls without the victim have even evidence
of this.
The Israeli company Nso Group is supposedly dedicated to cybersecurity, but its software is used by governments around the world to achieve access on many occasions illicit to telephones and other devices of journalists, activists and political enemies.
