In a recent statement, Kaspersky, one of the most notable cybersecurity companies in the world, said it had been hit by a sophisticated hacker attack.
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According to the company, dozens of iPhones of its employees were infected by a malware that received the name “Operation Triangulation”.
The virus allowed the collection of information, microphone recordings, instant messaging photos and geolocation data, that is, it was a potent spyware.
Malware was sent via iMessage and didn't need any permission from the user
According to the Kaspersky report, the attack was carried out upon receipt of an invisible iMessage that contained an attachment malicious, equipped with an exploit, which depending on the company, used the vulnerabilities of the iOS operating system, to run and install the spyware.
Furthermore, the deployment of the virus required no user action. In other words, it didn't have to be opened to be effective. This means that it was enough for the user to receive the message for malware to steal data from the device.
Once infected, the malware acted by downloading additional stages from a command and control server. To go unnoticed, he deleted the message along with the attachment. However, the users didn't notice, as the steps were conducted in the background.
The presence of malware prevented updates from arriving on devices
“Due to the peculiarities of blocking iOS updates on infected devices, we have not yet we found an effective way to remove spyware without losing user data,” commented Eugene Kaspersky.
In conclusion, the company said that this is just the beginning of the cyber attack investigation. It was passed on to users, according to the report, that while the company works on the investigation, the public will be updated.
Even though it was directly hit by spyware, the company believes it was not the main target of cyber attacks.
The attacks were discovered as the experts perceived corporate Wi-Fi network traffic through Kaspersky's Unified Monitoring and Analysis Platform (KUMA).
