Google unveils an attack that penetrates the iPhone for two years

Google's cybersecurity researchers have found evidence of "tireless efforts" over the past two years that have allowed the iPhone to be hacked.

Hackers have used websites that can install malware that collects communications, images, and other data from phones.

Google researchers estimate that trapped sites record more than thousands of weekly visits.

Apple told the BBC that he did not want to comment.

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The attack was reported by a series of technical sites, details of which were written by Ian Bear, British expert on information security, member of the team of security analysts Google, "Project Zero", is responsible for investigating new security vulnerabilities that can be exploited for attack.

"There was no distinction between targets," wrote Bear. "Visit the hacked site so that software running the server can attack your computer.

Bear and his team said they discovered that hackers were exploiting 12 different security vulnerabilities to infiltrate devices. This was mainly in the Safari browser used in Apple products.

Tireless effort

Once the malware enters an iPhone, it will be able to access a huge amount of data, including GPS, images and data. The software can send this information to an external device every 60 seconds, according to Ian Bear.

The software was also able to collect data from applications used by the hacked device, such as Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram. Ian Peer's sample list included Google products such as Gmail and Hangouts.

The attackers managed to penetrate "all iOS versions from the tenth to the twelfth, which demonstrates the efforts to attack iPhone users in some communities over the next two years."

Are you protected?

Apple has released a hotfix to fix the bug in February.

If you are an iPhone user, you need to make sure your phone uses the latest version of iOS to make sure you are protected.

On February 1 of this year, the Google team notified Apple of defects and, within six days of repair, repairs had been made.

Ian Peer has not speculated about the origin of the attack nor about the profits of the malware on the black market: similar software could be sold for millions of dollars until what happened. They are discovered and repaired.