{"id":411496,"date":"2021-08-26T17:25:26","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T15:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=411496"},"modified":"2021-08-26T17:27:32","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T15:27:32","slug":"iphones-hit-by-updated-pegasus-spyware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/411496-iphones-hit-by-updated-pegasus-spyware.html","title":{"rendered":"iPhones hit by updated Pegasus spyware"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An updated Pegasus spyware exploit, deployed by NSO Group, was <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/citizenlab.ca\/2021\/08\/bahrain-hacks-activists-with-nso-group-zero-click-iphone-exploits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">discovered<\/a><\/strong> on a Bahraini activist\u2019s iPhone. Researchers at Citizen Lab determined that the phone has been infected since February 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The new NSO Group exploit, dubbed ForcedEntry for its ability to bypass iOS\u2019s BlastDoor security, is built on the cyberweaponry company\u2019s Pegasus spyware.<\/p>\n<p>Citizen Lab and Amnesty International first exposed the iOS 14-targeting capabilities of Pegasus in July 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The Citizen Lab found that the updated Pegasus hack uses a \u201czero-click\u201d attack that does not require user interaction.<\/p>\n<p>The new spyware can bypass Apple\u2019s BlastDoor security feature present in all versions of iOS 14, an aspect designed to stave off these types of hacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApple would not explicitly say if it had found and fixed the vulnerability that NSO is exploiting,\u201d TechCrunch <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2021\/08\/24\/nso-pegasus-bahrain-iphone-security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Apple\u2019s Head of Security, Engineering, and Architecture, Ivan Krstic, released a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cApple unequivocally condemns cyberattacks against journalists, human rights activists, and others seeking to make the world a better place,\u201d Krstic said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAttacks like the ones described are highly sophisticated, cost millions of dollars to develop, often have a short shelf life, and are used to target specific individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile that means they are not a threat to the overwhelming majority of our users, we continue to work tirelessly to defend all our customers, and we are constantly adding new protections for their devices and data.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An Apple spokesperson indicated that Apple had bolstered its defences in iOS 15, which is expected to be released this spring (between September and November).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/406906-ramaphosas-phone-identified-in-leaked-pegasus-spy-project-records.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ramaphosa\u2019s phone identified in leaked Pegasus spy project records<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government spyware outfit NSO Group is back with a new version of Pegasus that can break into iPhones without user interaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":411500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,17934],"tags":[605,63563,67786,54297,59020],"class_list":["post-411496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","category-smartphones","tag-apple","tag-ios-14","tag-ios-15","tag-nso-group","tag-pegasus-spyware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":411502,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411496\/revisions\/411502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}