Digital watchdog warns users after detecting Israeli spyware in Apple devices

Apple users beware! Researchers at digital watchdog group Citizen Lab on Thursday revealed they found spyware linked to Israeli firm NSO that exploited a newly discovered flaw in Apple devices.

While inspecting the Apple device of an employee of a Washington-based civil society group last week, Citizen Lab said it found the flaw had been used to infect the device with NSO’s Pegasus spyware, it said in a statement.

“This shows that civil society is once again serving as the early warning system about really sophisticated attacks,” said John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

However, the organisation or the impacted person was not identified by Citizen Lab.

According to the digital watchdog, the bug allowed iPhones running the most recent version of iOS (16.6) to be compromised without any involvement from the victim.

After looking into the issues raised by Citizen Lab, Apple updated its products. 

A representative for Apple declined to speak further, and Citizen Lab recommended users upgrade their gadgets.

Additionally, an NSO representative stated that there were no immediate comments regarding the Citizen Lab findings, Al-Arabiya reported.

The US government has blacklisted the Israeli company since 2021 following the alleged abuses, including the surveillance of journalists and government officials as a precautionary measure.