Did you know Pegasus Spyware Exploits iPhone Vulnerabilities, Many Cases Remain Undetected

 

iPhone maker Apple has been wary of the Pegasus spyware attacks for a while now but a new report says that it’s only able to detect 50% of all attacks.

For those wondering, the Pegasus spyware is certainly a scary privacy threat that all iPhones are at risk of. If you don’t take the right measures, it ends up taking over your device. Similarly, it can access all private data stored inside. Moreover, some variants were able to activate cameras and microphones too.

A new report is shedding light on how Pegasus exploits security loopholes that the tech giant is not aware of. Such incidents are called zero-day vulnerabilities and Apple is trying to move ahead to better its protective measures.

The company recently shared that it does notify users when it suspects that their devices were targeted by spyware. It’s working hard to determine security flaws. For instance, we saw last year the company rolled out warnings to different iPhone users in nearly 100 different nations.

They called it a mercenary spyware attack that might compromise all personal information stored in the devices. The company shared how it can’t be 100% sure in the conclusions but it does have a high degree of surety that it’s right. It’s also now urging recipients to take all the warnings seriously.

Right now, only 50% of all infected devices are detected as per security firm iVerify which shared the concerning statistics. The company did roll out a $1 platform that lets users scan devices and send those results for analysis purposes. That one-off fee lets them carry out scans for a month.

This provides Apple with the necessary information to estimate the incident of Pegasus infections and similarly check how many of them were actually reported by Apple to the respective users. After very extensive coverage from the press, more than 18,000 users installed the Basic app from iVerify. They were able to carry out scans and that resulted in them detecting 11 new cases for the spyware alone in December.

The latest array of new detections brings the global incidence rate further down to nearly 1.5 Pegasus detections for every 1000 scans carried out. However, the bigger sample size is increasing the confidence that these stats could hint at a more real image of the actual incidence rate. It similarly enables many to draw comparisons to more possible conclusions.

We’re seeing that so many mobile compromise incidents go beyond high-value figures for activists and politicians. It appears to affect a wide array of society today. The latest detections entail various variants of spyware between 2021 to 2023. Common attacks carried out involve the government sector, logistics, real estate, and finance. Plenty were attacked with different variants and those have been monitored over the years.

In nearly 50% of the cases, targets didn’t even get any threat alert or notification from the iPhone maker. Such individuals wouldn’t have known the devices were compromised if they didn’t use iVerify.