Huawei ≠ iPhones? UAE Used Cyber Super-Weapon To Spy On iPhones Of Foes

[ThunderBlade + 231]

A team of former U.S. government intelligence operatives working for the United Arab Emirates hacked into the iPhones of activists, diplomats and rival foreign leaders with the help of a sophisticated spying tool called Karma, in a campaign that shows how potent cyber-weapons are proliferating beyond the world’s superpowers and into the hands of smaller nations. The cyber tool allowed the small Gulf country to monitor hundreds of targets beginning in 2016, from the Emir of Qatar and a senior Turkish official to a Nobel Peace laureate human-rights activist in Yemen, according to five former operatives and program documents reviewed by Reuters. The sources interviewed by Reuters were not Emirati citizens. Karma was used by an offensive cyber operations unit in Abu Dhabi comprised of Emirati security officials and former American intelligence operatives working as contractors for the UAE’s intelligence services. The existence of Karma and of the hacking unit, code named Project Raven, haven’t been previously reported. Raven’s activities are detailed in a separate story published by Reuters today. The ex-Raven operatives described Karma as a tool that could remotely grant access to iPhones simply by uploading phone numbers or email accounts into an automated targeting system. The tool has limits — it doesn’t work on Android devices and doesn’t intercept phone calls. But it was unusually potent because, unlike many exploits, Karma did not require a target to click on a link sent to an iPhone, they said.

[pinto + 293]

“The tool cool is activated by simply loading the phone number or the email of the intended target, the target need not click on any link.”  

And we used to think that iPhone was secured

[damirUSBiH + 327]

The FaceTime bug makes me wonder what else phones can do that we don’t know about and just how intensely they spy on us. And, after a few days answer is here.

[rainman + 263]

My best spy tool was my iPhone... oops didn‘t want to say that.... Just came out this week that did....

[Pavel + 384]

Facebook, Google, meanwhile Huawei and now iPhone. What a world...

[ronwagn + 6,290]

6 hours ago, damirUSBiH said:

The FaceTime bug makes me wonder what else phones can do that we don’t know about and just how intensely they spy on us. And, after a few days answer is here.

My computer automatically turns on the microphone and shows me that it is on and ready for commands, thus listening! I need to cover it up or figure out how to shut it off. 

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