According to a report, Apple has told at least nine US Department of State employees that they may have been targeted by state-sponsored software.
NSO Group will investigate and take legal action against customers who use its tools illegally.
"If our investigation shows that these actions happened with NSO's tools, we will take legal action against the customer and we will also give the full information we have," said an NSO spokesman.
Last month, Apple filed a lawsuit against NSO Group to hold it accountable for state-sponsored spyware targeting Apple users. Apple said it would give $10 million to cybersurveillance research and advocacy.
NSO Group's "spyware product" was used to attack a "very small number of users" across multiple platforms, according to Apple.
NSO Group's FORCEDENTRY, an exploit for a now-patched vulnerability previously used to break into a victim's Apple device and install the latest version of NSO Group's spyware product, is the subject of Apple's legal complaint.
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NSO Group or its clients can deliver and install Pegasus spyware without a victim's knowledge if attackers created Apple IDs to send malicious data to a victim's device. The Apple server was not compromised in the attacks.
NSO Group's software could allow attackers to access the microphone, camera, and other sensitive data on Apple and other devices, according to Apple. As of November 23, Apple said it had not observed any evidence of successful remote attacks against devices running any version of the software.
In a support document, Apple said it would notify users who may have been targeted by email and iMessage.
If Apple discovers activity consistent with a state-sponsored attack, we notify the targeted users.
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A Threat Notification is displayed at the top of the page after the user signs into appleid.apple.com.
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The email addresses and phone numbers associated with the user's Apple ID are sent by Apple.
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Users who are notified can take additional steps to help protect their devices.
Apple wants to cut down on the abuse of state-sponsored software.
Craig Federighi, Apple's software engineering chief, said that state-sponsored actors spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change.
Thanks, Jordan Golson!
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