Apple under pressure over iPhone security after NSO spyware claims
Amnesty International, which analyzed dozens of smartphones targeted by clients of NSO, said Apple’s marketing claims about its devices’ superior security and privacy had been “ripped apart” by the discovery of vulnerabilities in even the most recent versions of its iPhones and iOS software.
“Thousands of iPhones have potentially been compromised,” said Danna Ingleton, deputy director of Amnesty’s tech unit. “This is a global concern—anyone and everyone is at risk, and even technology giants like Apple are ill-equipped to deal with the massive scale of surveillance at hand.”
Security researchers said Apple could do more to tackle the problem by working with other tech companies to share details about vulnerabilities and vet their software updates.
“Apple unfortunately does a poor job at that collaboration,” said Aaron Cockerill, chief strategy officer at Lookout, a mobile security provider. He described iOS as a “black box” compared with Google’s Android, where he said it was “much easier to identify malicious behavior."
