After India backs down from the preinstallation of Government Security App, Sanchar Saathi, on Mobile devices, Apple and Google have disclosed that the bug has been discovered by Apple’s security engineers and Google’s Threat Analysis Group on their softwares, tracking the bug to government-linked hackers and spyware groups, suggesting the attack may be state-backed.
Although Apple and Google have released fresh software updates to protect users from a hacking campaign that has already affected an unknown number of people. The updates were rolled out this week after the companies discovered serious security flaws that hackers were actively using to break into devices.
On Wednesday, Google released security patches for several bugs in its Chrome browser, warning that one of the flaws was already being exploited before it could be fixed. At first, Google did not share details about the attack. However, by Friday, the company disclosed that the bug was discovered by Apple’s security engineers and Google’s Threat Analysis Group.
At the same time, Apple issued security updates for many of its products, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and the Safari browser. Apple said it fixed two serious bugs and warned that the flaws may have been used in “extremely sophisticated attacks” against specific individuals using older versions of its software.
Such warnings usually mean that hackers used so-called “zero-day” flaws, which are unknown to software makers at the time of the attack. These types of attacks are often linked to government-backed hacking tools used to spy on journalists, activists and political opponents. Apple and Google have not yet responded to requests for further comment.
It appears that Governments across the nation are making discreet and overt moves at monitoring citizens through their devices. Although experts have argued in support of this on the ground of cyber-security but their are concerns on matters of privacy and intrusion.
Although the companies did not identify any specific country as being responsible. Apple and Google also did not publicly attribute the attacks to any government but both companies are based in the United States, but they operate globally. Apple is headquartered in Cupertino, California, USA while Google (under its parent company, Alphabet) is headquartered in Mountain View, California, USA.
While they are American companies, their products and services such as iPhones, Android devices, Chrome, and cloud services are used in almost every country worldwide, which is why security issues affecting them often have global implications.
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