Russia says US accessed thousands of Apple phones in spy plot
- Spy agency said telephones belonging to foreign diplomats based in Russia, including from China, Israel, Syria and Nato members, had been targeted
- Officials involved in preparations for Russia’s 2024 elections were told to stop using iPhones amid concerns about Western intelligence agencies
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had uncovered a US National Security Agency (NSA) plot using previously unknown malware to access specially made so-called back door vulnerabilities in Apple phones.
The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that several thousand Apple phones had been infected, including those of domestic Russian subscribers.
The Russian spy agency also said telephones belonging to foreign diplomats based in Russia and the former Soviet Union, including those from Nato members, Israel, Syria and China, had been targeted.
“The FSB has uncovered an intelligence action of the American special services using Apple mobile devices,” the FSB said in a statement.
Neither Apple nor the NSA immediately responded to emailed requests for comment outside usual US business hours.
The FSB said the plot showed the close relationship between Apple and the NSA, the US agency responsible for US cryptographic and communications intelligence and security.
