Apple denies Russian allegations of involvement in NSA spy plot

Apple denies allegations from the FSB that the tech company collaborates with the American intelligence service NSA. According to the Russian Federal Security Service, the NSA, with the help of Apple, infected thousands of iPhones in Russia with spy software.

Although the FSB points the finger at Apple, the Russian security service has provided no evidence of this. Apple says in a statement to Reuters that it “has never worked with any government to put a backdoor in an Apple product and never will.” The NSA has not yet responded to the claims.

According to the FSB, several thousand iPhones have been infected with spyware, including those of diplomats from Russia and the former Soviet Union. Diplomats from Israel, Syria and China, as well as NATO members, have also been compromised, according to the FSB. The iOS spyware was reportedly discovered while investigating the security of Russia’s telecommunications infrastructure.

It is difficult to verify the veracity of the FSB’s claims. The Russian Federal Security Service has also structurally deployed malware in the past. The FBI recently shut down the Russian Snake malware network. According to the American justice department, the FSB used this network to obtain sensitive documents from more than fifty countries. The spyware had been active for twenty years.

According to Eugene KasperskyCEO of the also Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky, the company recently acquired a cyber attack related to iOS devices discovered that affected the phones of dozens of company employees. The oldest traces of this infection are said to date back to 2019. It is not clear whether the two hacks are linked.