Russian ministry bans iPhones due to suspicion of espionage

The Russian Ministry of Industry has banned the use of iPhones internally. It is suspected that the US government is using Apple equipment for espionage. In any case, Russia wants to become less dependent on other countries for software.

The ban at the Russian ministry comes into effect on Monday, says Tass. Other government bodies are also working on such a ban. The Russian intelligence service FSB has long been concerned about the use of iPhones, but many officials like to work with them and therefore did not see a ban. writes the Financial Times.

The FSB wrote in June to have discovered thousands of iPhones that used vulnerabilities built into Apple to provide the American intelligence service NSA with information from devices belonging to Russian users, among others. The FSB did not specify exactly what kind of data this concerns. The service also did not mention the exact vulnerabilities.

Russia has been working for some time to become less dependent on software from other countries. The country faced sanctions from Western companies after starting a war in Ukraine last year. Therefore, it almost immediately started building alternatives and allowing software piracy.

Putin with an iPhone. Source: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images