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Uighurs in China were target of two-year iOS malware attack - reports
Source: The Guardian
Uighurs in China were target of two-year iOS malware attack – reports
Android and Windows devices also targeted in campaign believed to be state-backed
Alex Hern
@alexhern
Mon 2 Sep 2019 12.26 BST Last modified on Mon 2 Sep 2019 12.27 BST
Chinese Uighurs were the target of an iOS malware attack lasting more than two years that was revealed last week, according to multiple reports.
Android and Windows devices were also targeted in the campaign, which took the form of “watering hole attacks”: taking over commonly visited websites or redirecting their visitors to clones in order to indiscriminately attack each member of a community.
Zack Whittaker of TechCrunch, who first reported the focus of the attack on the Uighur Muslim community in Xinjiang province, said “the websites were part of a state-backed attack – likely [by] China – designed to target the Uighur community”.
The attack is thought to be the first large-scale exploitation of iOS vulnerabilities in the history of the iPhone. Using a large number of previously undiscovered weaknesses in the operating system, the malicious websites were able to gain near-total control of visiting devices without the users becoming aware, or having to do anything other than open the website in their browser.
The campaign was discovered by researchers at Google and shut down by Apple after the company was notified.
-snip-
Android and Windows devices also targeted in campaign believed to be state-backed
Alex Hern
@alexhern
Mon 2 Sep 2019 12.26 BST Last modified on Mon 2 Sep 2019 12.27 BST
Chinese Uighurs were the target of an iOS malware attack lasting more than two years that was revealed last week, according to multiple reports.
Android and Windows devices were also targeted in the campaign, which took the form of “watering hole attacks”: taking over commonly visited websites or redirecting their visitors to clones in order to indiscriminately attack each member of a community.
Zack Whittaker of TechCrunch, who first reported the focus of the attack on the Uighur Muslim community in Xinjiang province, said “the websites were part of a state-backed attack – likely [by] China – designed to target the Uighur community”.
The attack is thought to be the first large-scale exploitation of iOS vulnerabilities in the history of the iPhone. Using a large number of previously undiscovered weaknesses in the operating system, the malicious websites were able to gain near-total control of visiting devices without the users becoming aware, or having to do anything other than open the website in their browser.
The campaign was discovered by researchers at Google and shut down by Apple after the company was notified.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/02/uighurs-china-target-two-year-ios-malware-attack-reports