Cybersecurity

Apple boosts iPhone security after Israeli spyware reveals startling weaknesses

An  Israeli digital arms company has prompted tech giant Apple to boost security for its mobile operating system after developing a highly sophisticated spyware package that allows complete control of iPhone devices.

The spyware — code-named Pegasus — took advantage of previously undisclosed weaknesses in Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 9.3.5., according to reports published Thursday by the San Francisco-based Lookout smartphone security company and internet watchdog group Citizen Lab.The software can track calls and contacts, collect passwords, read text messages and emails, record calls and trace the whereabouts of the user.The culprit, according to the reports by Lookout and Citizen Lab, is the NSO Group, an Israeli company with a reputation for flying under the radar.