The Biggest iPhone Hack In History, Explained

CYBER

VICE

Tech News, News & Politics, Technology, News

4 • 645 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At the end of August, researchers at Google dropped a bombshell: they had discovered malicious websites that they said were indiscriminately spreading iPhone malware for years. At certain points the websites were even using zero day exploits; attacks that take advantage of vulnerabilities that Apple is not aware of.

Apple subsequently confirmed what various media reports found: that the malicious sites were particularly geared towards hacking Uighur muslims, many of whom live in Western China under intense surveillance from the government. Apple disputed some details from Google, such as the length of the campaign, but this is still likely the biggest iPhone hack we know about so far.

On this week's episode of CYBER, we talk to Motherboard Senior Staff Writer Joseph Cox about Google's research, and what it means for how governments deploy iPhone malware: it turns out, on a much larger scale than we previously thought.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Tann, it's got the code it's going to launch.
0:10.7	It's a unit system.
0:13.2	I know this.
0:15.1	It's all the files of the whole park.
0:17.3	It tells her everything.
0:19.1	Sir, he's uploading the virus.
0:21.6	Eagle won. The package is being delivered.
0:26.6	It was the Thursday before the final summer long weekend.
0:29.6	We were all looking forward to Labor Day, maybe that final sunny beer and barbecue before the bitter cold of autumn.
0:35.6	Then Google, of all sources, decided to drop a bombshell on its top Apple rival.
0:42.3	Its security team had found a major hack of iPhones.
0:45.3	Cyber security experts at Google discovered a plot to hack a massive number of iPhones over a two-year period.
0:52.3	Researchers found a group of hacked websites
0:54.8	that exploited vulnerabilities in Apple software
0:57.3	that would have given hackers access to users' contacts,
1:00.7	photos, and location data.
1:03.2	It might be the biggest and most insane hack
1:05.3	of the normally impossible to hack iPhone in years.
1:09.9	On this week's episode, we've got motherboard reporter Joseph Cox, who first
1:13.7	reported the story to break down this hack. I'm Ben Makou, and this is Cyber. So Joseph, how did the
1:26.6	world find out about probably maybe the biggest iPhone hack ever
1:31.1	that's ever been reported at least?
	...

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