Russia says US hacked thousands of Apple phones in spy plot

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had uncovered a US spy operation that compromised thousands of iPhones through sophisticated surveillance software.

The FSB, the main successor to the former KGB, said in a statement that thousands of Apple devices had been compromised, including Russian domestic subscribers and foreign diplomats in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union.

“The FSB discovered an intelligence action by US special services using Apple mobile devices,” the agency said in a statement.

The FSB said the plot showed “close cooperation” between Apple and the National Security Agency (NSA), the US agency responsible for intelligence and cryptographic and communications security.

The FSB provided no evidence that Apple cooperated or was aware of the spying campaign.

Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab said dozens of its employees’ devices were compromised in the operation.

Apple, in a statement, denied the allegation. The company has stated that it has never worked with any government to insert a clandestine access into any product, and never will.

The NSA did not comment.

Kaspersky also said in a statement that it has never worked with any government to put clandestine access into any Apple product and never will.

Kaspersky Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky said on Twitter that dozens of employees’ phones were compromised in the operation, which the company described as “an extremely complex and professionally targeted cyber attack” that targeted “upper and middle management” workers. ”.

Kaspersky researcher Igor Kuznetsov told Reuters that the company independently discovered anomalous traffic on its corporate Wi-Fi network earlier this year. He said Kaspersky didn’t pass the findings on to Russia’s Computer Emergency Response Team until early Thursday.

He said he could not comment on Moscow’s claim that Americans were responsible for the hack or that there were thousands of other targets.

“It’s very difficult to attribute anything to anyone,” he said. “We were just looking into our own engagement, just within our own network.”

The FSB said the Americans had engaged diplomats from Israel, Syria, China and NATO members in the spying campaign.

Israeli officials did not comment. Chinese, Syrian and NATO representatives were not immediately available for comment.

(Additional reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington; James Pearson in London; and Zeba Siddiqui in San Francisco; Editing by Bennett)