Following a recent press statement from the National Information Technology Development Agency, signed by Mrs Hadiza Umar mnipr Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations Unit, the Apple brand has released security updates for a newly discovered zero-day vulnerability that affects every iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.
According to research, it has been revealed that the zero-click exploit, which targets iMessaging, is used to illegally spy on iOS devices.
That way, an attacker infects and exploits an Apple device without the victim’s knowledge or the need for the victim to carry out any action.
The impact of this situation, therefore, is that spyware called Pegasus gets deployed into a targeted device, turns on the camera and microphone to record messages, texts, emails and calls, even if sent via encrypted messaging apps.
Once the attacker has control of the device, the attacker compromises the user’s credentials, gains access to entire infrastructure, identify sensitive assets and move laterally within the network.
According to the statement, the affected products are iOS versions–14.4 & 14.6.
For preventive measures, all users are strongly advised by the Agency to immediately update their iOS devices with the latest patches iOS 14.8. Updates are available for free from Apple.
The following steps have been suggested to aid the update of iOS for its users. Plug the device into power and connect to the internet with Wi-Fi, go to Settings > General, then tap Software Update and tap Install Now. If download and install instead, tap it to download the update, enter your passcode, then tap install now.
After the installation process begins, a message that says “Verifying Update” appears; wait for it to finish and after verification is complete, the device will restart then the Apple logo and a small progress bar in the centre of the screen.
Consequently, when installation is complete, you can unlock and use your iPhone again as usual.
