Russia claims US intelligence hacked thousands of iPhones

Russia has reportedly accused United States (US) intelligence agencies of hacking thousands of iPhones belonging to Russians and other foreign diplomats in the nation. The Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Thursday that it had uncovered an "intelligence action" that compromised the iPhones of Russians and diplomats from Syria, China, Israel, and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

• This alleged cyberespionage campaign comes at a time when relations between the Kremlin and Washington are at their most tense in decades due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
• In April, the US Department of Justice announced it had disrupted a malware campaign conducted by the FSB against targets in more than 50 countries for more than two decades.

According to the Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, the campaign allegedly installed file-stealing malware on its staff's iPhones running an outdated version of Apple's mobile operating system. Speaking to The Washington Post, a Kaspersky representative revealed that researchers were still analyzing the effort but lacked sufficient technical evidence to identify the source.

Meanwhile, the FSB proclaimed that the US was responsible for the attack that targeted thousands of people, including diplomats stationed there. It further alleged that the vulnerability's existence proved Apple had worked with hackers for the US government. A Kremlin spokesperson also alleged that the government believed iPhones were inherently unsafe.

Reacting to the security breach claims, an Apple spokesperson reportedly denied the allegations and emphasized that the company has never worked with any government to install a backdoor into any of its products. "We have never worked with any government to insert a backdoor into any Apple product and never will," The Washington Post quoted the spokesperson as saying.

Kaspersky, which frequently collaborates with Russian law enforcement, also released a list of obscure web portals that were reportedly used to connect to the infected iPhones, as well as technical indicators of penetration that individuals can use to examine their devices. Headquartered in Moscow, Kaspersky, however, didn't attribute the alleged attack to a particular nation or source.