Apple has come under pressure to collaborate more with its Silicon Valley rivals in order to fend off the common threat of surveillance technology, after a report alleged that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was used to target journalists and human rights activists.
Amnesty International, which analysed dozens of smartphones targeted by clients of NSO, said Apple’s marketing claims about its devices’ superior security and privacy had been “ripped apart” by the discovery of vulnerabilities in even the most recent versions of its iPhones and iOS software.
“Thousands of iPhones have potentially been compromised,” said Danna Ingleton, deputy director of Amnesty’s tech unit. “This is a global concern — anyone and everyone is at risk, and even technology giants like Apple are ill-equipped to deal with the massive scale of surveillance at hand.”