Apple has notified some users in France that their devices may have been targeted by a highly-sophisticated spyware campaign. According to France’s national cybersecurity agency, this is the fourth time this year that Apple has sent such warnings to users in the country. The alerts are aimed at specific, high-profile individuals, including journalists, lawyers, politicians, and senior officials.
The warnings come less than a month after a security flaw in WhatsApp was chained with an Apple iOS bug to enable zero-click attacks. These highly dangerous exploits require no action from a user to compromise a phone. While WhatsApp sent its own notifications to a small number of targeted users, the group behind the activity remains unknown.
In a recent effort to combat these attacks, Apple has introduced a security feature in its latest iPhones called Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE). This new technology is designed to make it much harder for spyware vendors to use memory-based vulnerabilities to plant malware on a device.
The broader market for such tools is growing. A new report from the Atlantic Council found that the number of United States investors in spyware and surveillance technologies tripled last year, surpassing all other major countries. The report highlights that new companies and resellers are entering the spyware market, which makes the tools more widely available.
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