You may have thought that if you own an iPhone you are surely safe from hackers, as the main operating system that has been the target of hackers since the dawn of time was Windows, right? Wrong. Apple devices aren’t safe from hackers. A new vulnerability has surfaced – and it’s scary.
FireEye is a respectable digital security company, having previously uncovered many potential dangers that lurk in the insides of all operating systems across all platforms. Just recently the Stagefright threat scared Android users, but has apparently been fixed. As was the fingerprint scanning gathering bug. If you’re working with Android, just remember to have all updates installed.
And it’s the same thing with iOS. This newest weak spot in the system’s inner workings are a bunch of malicious apps which contain quite strong malware. These breaches of security are also part of the large 400 GB hack that was carried out by hackers who broke the systems of another cybersecurity company, Hacking team.
Those 400 GB put the world in a state of alert, as the data contained government info from Uzbekistan, Egypt, as well as intelligence reports from Sudan’s secret intel service.
Although hacks possible through the download of malware apps (aka masque attacks) have been previously reported by the FireEye team, it seems that this time it’s worse. For the past warnings, the company had managed to hack Apple devices from inside their lab. So the hackers would need specific conditions for the hacks to work.
However, this new warning comes after the team managed to hack an iOS device from outside a test environment. This is really scary. The team says the hacks can happen through fake social media apps that appear on the App Store every now and then with this specific purpose. While the apps are perfect replicas of the originals, they also contain codes that allow the stealing of data.
And the number of this apps is pretty frightening. This is the first hack of this type to be possible on original iOS devices straight out of the factory. The apps you should look out for, eleven in total, are shady looking doubles of WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Blackberry Messenger, Chrome, and even Skype. Besides these 7, there are four other less used ones. Just make sure you avoid all suspicious apps, to be sure.
Through the hacks, anyone wishing would be able to access all your messages, your Skype video calls, and worst of all: your Chrome browsing history.
The best way to guard your phones, tablets and Macs from these threats is to keep them up to date. Always.
Image source: examiner.com
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