The cybersecurity firm iVerify claims that it’s uncovered evidence in a handful of mobile phones of a potential hacking campaign targeting five high-profile Americans in media, artificial intelligence and politics, including former members of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, reports NBC News.
The preliminary research includes a “significant amount of circumstantial evidence,” iVerify CEO Rocky Cole said.
The cybersecurity firm aid that in addition to the Americans who were targeted, a European government official’s iPhone had indications of remote tampering. It appears that last year, a hacker remotely and secretly installed a type of invasive, malicious program known as spyware to snoop on those users without their knowledge, iVerify said. Out of nearly 50,000 phones that iVerify analyzed, it found only six — all belonging to high-profile people who would be potential targets for an espionage campaign — that showed evidence of exploitation.
NBC News reports that Apple disputes iVerify’s conclusion that its evidence is a strong indication that iPhones were hacked.
“We’ve thoroughly analyzed the information provided by iVerify, and strongly disagree with the claims of a targeted attack against our users. Based on field data from our devices, this report points to a conventional software bug that we identified and fixed in iOS 18.3,” Ivan Krstić, the head of Apple Security Engineering and Architecture, said in an emailed statement.
Apple is “not currently aware of any credible indication that the bug points to an exploitation attempt or active attack,” Krstić said.
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