Apple has just released iOS 9.3.5, a free update which, for eligible iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, plugs security holes which an Israeli group had been exploiting with spyware software.
This month, investigators discovered that the company, NSO Group, had been using three particular security vulnerabilities in Apple devices in a bid to spy on journalists and dissidents, reports The New York Times. This evasive Israeli outfit makes software capable of stealthily tracking mobile phones.
This software can make far-reaching intrusions into targets’ phones – including reading text messages and emails, tracking calls and contacts, collecting passwords, recording sounds and even tracing the phone user’s whereabouts. Two researchers, Bill Marczak and John Scott Railton of the University of Toronto and San Francisco mobile security firm Lookout, tipped off Apple about the security holes.
iOS 9.3.5 is now available as a free update for the iPhone 4S or later, all iPads bar the first generation model, and the fifth and sixth generation iPod Touch models. It can be downloaded through Software Update in a compatible device’s Settings app or via the desktop iTunes software.
