Watsab said on Tuesday hackers took advantage of a security vulnerability in the world's most widely deployed messaging application, allowing hackers to install serious spyware on mobile phones, adding the problem to a series of problems faced by Facebook. The company urged users to update the application To the latest version, and confirmed that it referred to the electronic infiltration incident of the US Department of Justice.
The vulnerability, which the Financial Times first brought to its attention and repaired in the latest update to the application, allowed hackers to download malware on phones by connecting to the target user. About 1.5 billion people around the world use Wattab.
The software was developed by an unknown Israeli-based company called NSO Grop, accused of helping governments in the Middle East listen to activists and journalists, the Financial Times quoted a spyware dealer as saying. Security researchers said the malicious code bore similarities to other technologies developed by the company, according to the New York Times.
| According to a spyware vendor, the software that infected Watsab was developed by an unknown company based in Israel (Anatolia) |
Spyware, which targeted Android, iPhone and other devices, was discovered earlier this month, and Watasab was quick to fix the loophole in less than 10 days.
According to the newspaper, teams of engineers worked around the clock in San Francisco and London to address the weakness in the application, and began to put a cure on its servers on Friday last week, and instructed users on Monday.
A company spokesman urged users to get the latest version of the application, as well as constantly update their mobile operating system, to protect them from malicious software designed to tamper with information stored on mobile devices.
The company did not comment on a question about the number of users targeted or affected by malicious software, and said the incident was referred to infiltration to the US Department of Justice, pointing out that the attack was "very sophisticated."
| According to the company, the attack was very sophisticated and targeted a select group of users (Reuters) |
The penetration is the latest in a series of concerns for Facebook's owner, Watasab, after being criticized for allowing research firms to collect user data and its slow response to Russia's use of the platform as a means of spreading misleading information during the US election campaign in 2016.
The company said that the latest spyware is sophisticated and can only be available "to very advanced players with great motivation to use it," adding that it "targeted a select group of users".
"This attack carries all the hallmarks of a private company working with a number of governments around the world," she said, according to initial investigations, but did not mention the company's name, citing some human rights organizations, without giving names.
The NASO group was named in 2016 when it was accused of helping spying on an activist in the United Arab Emirates. The company's most famous product is Pegasus, a sophisticated spy device that is said to be able to operate a target phone's camera and microphone and access the data stored on it.