Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Thursday that it had exposed an espionage operation conducted by the United States, which had successfully infiltrated and compromised numerous iPhones using advanced surveillance software, reported Reuters. According to Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, the operation had targeted the devices of several of its employees, resulting in compromised security. In an official statement, the FSB, the primary successor to the Soviet-era KGB, disclosed that thousands of Apple Inc devices had been infected.
The affected devices belonged to both Russian nationals and foreign diplomats stationed in Russia and other countries formerly part of the Soviet Union.
"The FSB has uncovered an intelligence operation carried out by American special services using Apple mobile devices," the statement from the FSB revealed.
The FSB further asserted that the operation revealed a "close cooperation" between Apple and the National Security Agency (NSA), the US organisation responsible for cryptographic and communications intelligence and security. However, the FSB did not present any evidence to substantiate its claim of Apple's involvement or awareness of the spying campaign.
Apple promptly denied the allegations, stating, "We have never collaborated with any government to create a backdoor in our products, and we never will," in an official statement.
The NSA declined to comment on the matter, the Reuters report added.
Eugene Kaspersky, the CEO of Kaspersky Lab, disclosed on Twitter that several of his employees' phones had been compromised in the operation. The cybersecurity firm described the attack as an "extremely complex, professionally targeted cyberattack" primarily targeting high and middle-management personnel.
Igor Kuznetsov, a researcher at Kaspersky, informed Reuters that the company had independently detected abnormal network traffic on its corporate Wi-Fi network at the beginning of the year. However, Kaspersky did not report its findings to Russia's Computer Emergency Response Team until recently.
Kuznetsov refrained from commenting on Moscow's accusation that the hacking originated from American sources or that thousands of individuals had been targeted, stating that attribution was challenging.
In a blog post, Kaspersky mentioned that the earliest traces of infection dated back to 2019 and confirmed that the attack was still ongoing as of June 2023. The company clarified that while its staff had been affected, it believed that Kaspersky was not the primary target of the cyberattack.
According to the FSB, the American hackers had compromised the devices of diplomats from various countries, including Israel, Syria, China, and NATO member states.
Officials from Israel declined to comment, while representatives from China, Syria, and NATO were not immediately available for a response.