Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday that it had uncovered a plot by the US National Security Agency (NSA) that used previously unknown malware to access so-called backdoors in Apple phones.
The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said several thousand Apple phones have been infected with the virus, including those belonging to local Russian subscribers.
Apple and the NSA did not immediately respond to email requests for comment.
The Russian spy service also said the phones of foreign diplomats in Russia and the former Soviet Union, including Israel, Syria, China and NATO members, had been targeted.
The Federal Security Service said in a statement: “The Federal Security Service discovered an intelligence operation carried out by special American services involving the use of mobile devices from Apple.”
According to Harvard University’s Belfer Center Cyber 2022 Power Index, the United States is the world’s largest cyber power in terms of intent and capability, followed by China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Snoop US?
The plot refers to “close cooperation” between Apple and the National Security Agency, the US agency responsible for encryption, intelligence and security in the United States, according to the FSB.
The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed the importance of the case.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement: “The hidden data was collected through software vulnerabilities of US-made mobile phones.”
“US intelligence agencies have been using information technology companies for decades to collect data from large-scale Internet users without their knowledge,” the department said.
The FSB said the plot was discovered as part of a joint effort between its officers and those of the Federal Guard Service (FSO), a powerful agency that heads the Kremlin’s bodyguard and was once the KGB’s Ninth Directorate.
Officials in Russia, which Western spies say has built a highly sophisticated domestic surveillance structure, have long been suspicious of the security of American technology.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said all officials in the presidential administration knew that devices like the iPhone were “completely transparent”.
“Its use for official purposes is unacceptable and prohibited,” Peskov said, adding that officials are free to use iPhones for informal private communications.
phone spy
Putin has always said he does not have a smartphone, although the Kremlin has said that the former KGB spy uses the Internet from time to time.
The Russian Apple phone alert came hours before Moscow-based antivirus firm Kaspersky Lab released a report saying that an unknown number of its employees had been compromised in a “highly sophisticated and professional cyberattack”.
Kaspersky said the spyware, delivered via an invisible message, was installed through iOS vulnerabilities and information from the phone was then forwarded to remote servers.
Kaspersky said the digital espionage campaign targeted the company’s “senior and middle management” and published a technical report detailing how the malware works.
The company did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment on the timing of the report and whether it related to the FSB warning.
Earlier this year, the Kremlin told officials involved in preparations for Russia’s 2024 presidential election to stop using Apple iPhones because they feared the devices could be vulnerable to Western intelligence agencies, Kommersant reported.
