The memorable phrase "Big brother is watching you" is likely to have jumped out of the pages of George Orwell’s fictional novel 1984 to reality, after the latest WikiLeaks releases on the hacking tactics used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which targeted Apple products.
The CIA is able to hack into an iPhone well before it is sold on the market, according to WikiLeaks disclosures which have caused panic to users and triggered a prompt answer from the Cupertino-based tech giant.
Among the many tools targeting a variety of electronic devices, the tool to tap iPhones is called "NightSkies," which can physically be placed inside a smartphone even before it is unboxed.
It does so by infecting the device's supply chain “by interdicting mail order and other shipments,” WikiLeaks said.
The CIA can also hack into Mac PCs with a USB drive, through "Sonic Screwdriver" – a tool the agency developed in 2012. The unauthorized access can bypass the computer's firmware password hence hijacking the computer permanently.
AFP Photo
The hack is so powerful that wiping data, formatting hard drive, or reinstalling the operating system cannot counter it.
The agency "has the opportunity to gift a MacBook Air to a target that will be implanted with this tool," a CIA document, dating to 2009, said.
"The tool will be a beacon/implant that runs in the background of a MacBook Air that provides us with command and control capabilities."
Apple soon commented on the leaks saying that the alleged government exploits to its devices have been fixed as the documents are old.
“The alleged iPhone vulnerability affected iPhone 3G only and was fixed in 2009 when iPhone 3GS was released. Additionally, our preliminary assessment shows the alleged Mac vulnerabilities were previously fixed in all Macs launched after 2013,” Apple said in a statement to TechCrunch.
