The most sophisticated attack on the Apple iPhone in history
One of the largest companies for developing antiviruses and protecting devices from malicious software, has published a report describing a case that is claimed to be the most sophisticated attack on the Apple iPhone device since its existence.
Namely, it is a very complex and technologically highly precise and complex attack on the Apple iMessage service of text messages. The discovered defect and attack on this service is being handled under a case “Operation Triangulation”.
The observed malicious activity injects a malicious program into the iPhone device that begins to collect your data such as: recorded messages on the device’s microphone, photos, geolocation data that reveals your movements and a lot of other, sensitive personal information, and then transfers it all to a server controlled by the attackers .
How significant the entire operation was for both users and Apple itself is shown by the fact that the company’s engineers are Kaspersky for the first time revealed information about the entire Triangulation operation only at the recently held Chaos Communication conference.
Operation Triangulation is the most sophisticated attack on Apple devices ever
According to the data in the report, it is claimed that this malicious software and its activity was recorded for the first time in 2019, until December 2022. It is the most complex series of attacks that Apple has experienced until then.
In the last four years, hackers have very skillfully hidden a “backdoor” through which they extracted data from thousands of iPhone devices. With this attack, they had direct access to iPhone root information. In order to successfully exploit this attack, great knowledge, professional understanding and knowledge of the mechanism on which Apple devices fundamentally function is necessary, reports mydrivers.com.
Kaspersky software engineers who discovered this attack categorically claim that it was almost impossible to even imagine how this attack was discovered by chance. They even go so far as to say that it is almost impossible for anyone other than Apple and ARM staff to even know about the technical capabilities of this security flaw.
Hence, it becomes clear why this has been kept quiet for so long, because it is easy to conclude that many internal investigations have been carried out in the mentioned companies to determine whether someone from the inside is directly involved or through leaking information of the highest importance in these malicious activities.
Even if you turn off and restart your phone, you will only remove the danger for a moment, but hackers who attack your device can restart the malicious program by sending a text message through the iMessage service, without the need for the user to click on it and open it directly.
How effective this attack is is shown by the statement of Anderj Karpati, a scientific researcher at the company OpenAI, who firmly claims that it is without a doubt the most complex system of chain attacks that we have had the opportunity to see so far.