A Canada-based digital watchdog alerted Apple users on Thursday after they uncovered spyware connected to Israeli company NSO that takes advantage of a newly detected vulnerability in devices.
Citizen Lab discovered that an employee of a civil society group based in Washington had their Apple device infected with NSO’s Pegasus spyware through this flaw, according to a statement released by the organisation, advising users to remain cautious.
“This shows that civil society is once again serving as the early warning system about really sophisticated attacks,” said John Scott-Railton, senior researcher at Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
However, Citizen Lab did not go any further in identifying the organisation or the affected individual.
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The bug enables iPhone devices running the most recent version of iOS (16.6) to be compromised without the victim’s knowledge, according to the digital watchdog.
Apple changed its devices after investigating the problems brought up by Citizen Lab but a spokesperson from the tech giant declined to comment further.
However, Citizen Lab advised consumers to update their devices.
Additionally, an NSO representative stated that there were no immediate comments regarding the Citizen Lab findings, Al-Arabiya reported.
The US government has blacklisted the Israeli company since 2021 following the alleged abuses, including the surveillance of journalists and government officials as a precautionary measure.
