In the era of the Internet and millions of possibilities, people often failed to select the right way to stick with. We have witnessed several data hacks and data breaches in the last 2 decades.

Google warns 1 Billion of Apple customers, that their phones and personal data are vulnerable and have a cent percent chance of being hacked. And this warning came into light the same day iPhone 11 launch was confirmed. And this raised consciousness among users and Apple fans and mostly Apple itself to increase security because it is a serious issue.

Google now confirms that Hackers had put monitoring implants on the iPhone for years now. Security researchers at Google say that they have found a number of malicious softwares which when visited could hack into a user’s iPhone by exploiting a set of previously undisclosed software flaws.

They went on for almost two and half years. The hackers used a specific group of websites that were previously hacked by them to transfer malware on to the iPhone of those who will visit these specific websites. There were no interactions necessary,only visiting the site would do the hacker’s job.

Hackers could access Apple’s customer data with the help of using an implant. This data includes users’ passwords, contact and even messages sent through their device. Apparently, Gmail and Google data were also hacked Google confirmed.

The nature of the hack also enlightened users of how Apple approaches software development, patching and examining. 

The researches also said that they found five different exploit chains involving 12 separate security flaws including seven Safari the built in web browser on iPhones.The five separate attack chains allowed an attacker to gain root access to the device and the highest level of access to the device. And the hackers used malicious apps to spy on the user’s phone without their knowledge.

5  real-time location and more crucial data like the user’s on-device bank of saved passwords.

Bugs, Flaws, and Fixes

An operating system internal researcher “Jonathan Levin” stated that this is the first time these types of vulnerabilities have been used widely on the Internet. And users without knowing what they are accessing are full of malicious codes and that can really harm them.

He also added, it takes massive research and resources to hack millions of iPhone and it was not hacked by an individual but by a Nation. The hackers were very proficient and belonged form a strong and intelligent community of hackers. Google also implied that it could either be China or Russia who is probably targeting a racial minority within their respective areas.

The associates in Xinjiang confirmed that more than 1 million members of the Muslim minorities Uighur population are planted in “retraining camps” and they are in use for surveillance technology to monitor and oppress the population. This contained facial recognition, smartphone monitoring and scoring of citizens.

Beer is a member of Project Zero who said there isn’t any specific way at the moment to stop this. A team of white hackers in Google is working to fetch security vulnerabilities in the latest technology despite of the fact that it could be formed by any big organization. He also adds that the users have to stay conscious of the fact that advantages can be taken by hacking and act according to that. If you don’t take it seiously, hackers can exploit, hack data and upload every action of yours into a database and can use it against you.

 Google privately revealed this vulnerability in the month of February and reported Apple about the issues they found while investigating. Both iOS 10 and iOS 12 software versions of apple are vulnerable and Apple had only one week to fix the issues and come out with proper updates for the users. 14 bugs in total were used for the iOS attacks over five distinct exploit chains. The strings of flaws were arranged in such a way that hackers could jump from one bug to another and increase the strength of the attack each time.

While Beer highlighted issues and vulnerabilities related to the iPhone, he implied that Google’s Android may face the same consequences because they have worse bugs and need to work on these issues.

Apple generally doesn’t discuss or reveal any update on security issues, until they come up with a fix. But before people start having trust and security issues, Apple after six days rolled out with iOS 12.1.4 for iPhone 5s and iPad Air fixing the flaws.

They are now focusing more on security and other vulnerabilities that your device could have. They are seeing investing in securities like never before and are working on multiple leyrs of security. And a dedicated team has been planted to research and figure out how to prevent these attacks and keep user’s data completely safe from cyber frauds and hackers.

Conclusion 

So Google’s disclosure on Hackers breaching iPhone for years has drawn billions of eyes so far and everybody seems conscious and worried about these issues. As you always heard that’ Prevention is better than cure” and your consciousness is the most which matter. Now you know what’s the whole scene and how the Giant company has reacted to the story.