Apple users urged to update devices after ‘extremely sophisticated attack’

Millions of Apple users have been told to update their devices after a major security breach. Apple warned that the hack was an ‘extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals’ and crooks could have gained ‘full admin access’. This means hackers could have run any type of software on a person’s device. So far there has been no confirmed cases of hackers trying to infiltrate admin access to people’s phones.

The tech giant posted in a statement: ‘A physical attack may disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device. ‘Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.’. The devices that are impacted include the iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later.

The breach was caused because of a failure with the USB Restricted Mode. This is designed to usually block software from accessing Apple devices that have been locked for more than one hour. The news comes after almost 100 people across 24 countries were targeted by hackers on WhatsApp. WhatsApp said those targeted included journalists and other members of civil society who were targeted by spyware owned by Paragon Solutions, an Israeli maker of hacking software, WhatsApp said.

The software uses zero-click hack, which means people do not have to click malicious links to be impacted. The alleged attacks were discovered in December and it was not known how long the people had been hacked for. WhatsApp said it is in the process of informing people who have been impacted. A recent warning was also issued over the seven signs that your phone has been hacked. These include battery problems, high usage of data, slow performance, apps you don’t recognise, unusual activity, strange pop-ups and sudden decline in performance.

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