PogoWasRight.org

Menu
  • About
  • Privacy
Menu

Government Hackers Caught Using Unprecedented iPhone Spy Tool

Posted on August 25, 2016June 26, 2025 by Dissent

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reports

On the morning of August 10, Ahmed Mansoor, a 46-year-old human rights activist from the United Arab Emirates, received a strange text message from a number he did not recognize on his iPhone.

“New secrets about torture of Emiratis in state prisons,” read the tantalizing message, which came accompanied by a link.

Mansoor, who had already been the victim of government hackers using commercial spyware products from FinFisher and Hacking Team, was suspicious and didn’t click on the link. Instead, he sent the message to Bill Marczak, a researcher at Citizen Lab, a digital rights watchdog at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

As it turned out, the message wasn’t what it purported to be. The link didn’t lead to any secrets, but to a sophisticated piece of malware that exploited three different unknown vulnerabilities in Apple’s iOS operating system that would have allowed the attackers to get full control of Mansoor’s iPhone, according to new joint reports released on Thursday by Citizen Lab and mobile security company Lookout.

Read more on Motherboard. But before you do, go update your iOS to 9.3.5 RIGHT NOW.

No related posts.

Category: BreachesFeatured NewsSurveillanceU.S.

Post navigation

← Judge rules Jason Pierre-Paul can sue ESPN, Adam Schefter for posting medical records online
WhatsApp Is Going To Share Your Personal Data With Facebook And Their Privacy Card Just Took A Massive Hit →

Now more than ever

Search

Contact Me

Email: info@pogowasright.org

Mastodon: Infosec.Exchange/@PogoWasRight

Signal: +1 516-776-7756

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Flightradar24 receives reprimand for violating aircraft data privacy rights
  • Nebraska Attorney General Sues GM and OnStar Over Alleged Privacy Violations
  • Federal Court Allows Privacy Related Claims to Proceed in a Proposed Class Action Lawsuit Against Motorola
  • Italian Garante Adopts Statement on Health Data and AI
  • Trump administration is launching a new private health tracking system with Big Tech’s help
  • Attorney General James Takes Action to Protect Sensitive Personal Information of Tens of Millions of People
  • Searches of Your Private Data in the Cloud Amount to Illicit State Action

RSS Recent Posts on DataBreaches.net

  • Highlands Oncology Group notifies 113,575 people after ransomware attack by Medusa
  • Oklahoma Substantially Amends Its Data Breach Notification Statute
  • Hackers leak purported Aeroflot data as Russia denies breach
  • Palo Alto Networks investigating ransomware threat related to SharePoint exploitation
  • Six months after discovering an attack, Northwest Radiologists notifies almost 350,000 Washington State residents
©2025 PogoWasRight.org. All rights reserved.
Menu
  • About
  • Privacy