Apple's iOS is presented as one of the most secure operating systems for mobile terminals, but one new type of spyware developed by a company should prove the opposite. FinFisher is the name of the company, and its spyware is able to take complete control of a computer, or even a mobile terminal. The spyware is called FinSpy Mobile and with its help the company can automatically turn on the loudspeaker of an iDevice, turn on the camera, take over your location, monitor the emails, messages or calls made by you, so it can completely control the iDevice, a computer or other mobile terminals.
The program can secretly turn on a device's microphone, track its location and monitor e-mails, text messages and voice calls, according to the findings, being published today by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs' Citizen Lab. Systems that can be targeted include Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Windows Mobile, the Apple iPhone's iOS and BlackBerry and Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Android, according to the company's literature. Today's report says the malware can also infect phones running Symbian, an operating system made by Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), and that it appears the program targeting iOS will run on iPad tablets.
Such spywares have existed for years in the wider world, they are not new, but now the company FinFisher says that it can affect a wide range of mobile terminals without any problem. Everything is done by installing a file in the terminal, and in the case of iOS it is not specified whether the devices are vulnerable only after they have been jailbroken before. Safari in iOS can NOT download files, so I assume that everything is done by installing an Apple certificate, but again, it is not known if terminals without jailbreak are affected.
Living in a world where secret services monitor calls made by people even without warrants, the existence of such spyware seems to be as normal as possible.
