The big technology story this week was prompted by Amnesty International, which somehow obtained information about iPhones and Android devices targeted by Pegasus software sold by NSO Group. NSO Group is a company in Israel that sells, at incredibly high prices, software that can be used to take over a smartphone. NSO Group asserts that it only sells to governments and requires governments to promise to only use the software against criminals, but it looks like some governments misused the software to target human rights activists, journalists, and others disliked by those in power. A number of news organizations around the world worked on publishing stories all throughout the week, such as this article by Craig Timberg, Reed Albergotti and Elodie Guéguen in the Washington Post. One of the surprising details in the article is that someone using the software just needed to know the phone number of a target iPhone. The software would sometimes send a text message with a link that the owner would have to tap to have the malware installed. But other times the text message would contain a malformed image that caused an iPhone to execute code and hack the iPhone even without the owner doing anything. Just having the text message received by the iPhone was enough to begin the hack. Once an iPhone or Android phone was compromised, the Pegasus software can track the phone, read contents on the phone, and even turn on the camera and microphone. This is scary stuff. In another article in the Washington Post by Elizabeth Dwoskin and Shira Rubin, one of the owners of NSO Group defends what the company does, explaining that he has received reports from governments that they have used the software to arrest very dangerous criminals. But NSO Group almost never knows whether the Pegasus software is being used properly or improperly.
The iPhone has a well-earned reputation for being the most secure smartphone on the market. But that doesn’t mean it is 100% safe. And while there are some things that iPhone owners can do to improve security, such as installing new iOS updates when they become available and not tapping on links that come from questionable sources, the smartest hackers in the world are very good at finding exploits. Of course, this issue is not unique to smartphones. If a nation-state wants to target you, it can be almost impossible to protect yourself, even if you flee to another country.
Here is Apple’s statement on this news item, as reported to 9to5Mac: “Apple unequivocally condemns cyberattacks against journalists, human rights activists, and others seeking to make the world a better place. For over a decade, Apple has led the industry in security innovation and, as a result, security researchers agree iPhone is the safest, most secure consumer mobile device on the market. Attacks like the ones described are highly sophisticated, cost millions of dollars to develop, often have a short shelf life, and are used to target specific individuals. While that means they are not a threat to the overwhelming majority of our users, we continue to work tirelessly to defend all our customers, and we are constantly adding new protections for their devices and data.”
Many years ago, the FBI tried to get courts to force Apple to develop a backdoor in the iPhone so that the government could use the backdoor against criminals. Apple resisted, pointing out that if a backdoor was created, nothing would stop the bad guys from using it too. As this NSO Group story reveals, sometimes, in some parts of the world, the government and the bad guys are the same people. And on that uplifting note, here is the rest of the news of note from the past week:
- Let’s transition from the scary to the silly. When I noted in my review of Weather Strip earlier this week that developers of weather apps have an opportunity to come up with new ways to present the same weather data that all other apps present, it never occurred to me that CARROT Weather would be updated this week to add the ability to record your own weather report. Just read the on-screen script as if it were a teleprompter, and you will quickly create a funny, but accurate, weather report that you can share. This is totally silly, but the feature is so well implemented that it is a lot of fun. Illinois attorney John Voorhees of MacStories describes this feature and everything else that was added to CARROT Weather this week.
- If you want to see some great photographs taken with an iPhone, check out the 2021 winners of the IPPAWARDS.
- You can now buy Apple’s AirTag accessories on Amazon including the AirTag Loop (regular and leather) and the AirTag Leather Key Ring. They even come in some new colors. That’s great, but I recommend that you consider the less expensive $12.95 Key Ring or Case with Strap sold by Belkin. The Belkin products have worked really well for me for the last few months. The Key Ring case is just a simple piece of smooth plastic, but it does the job and feels really good in the hand, which is important because your keys are often in your hand.
- Dan Moren of Six Colors reports that the HomePod software was updated this week to improve controls for timers, but Moren thinks that Apple has more work to do in this area.
- In an article in Macworld, Moren came up with three interesting features that Apple could add to the iPhone and Apple Watch.
- This week, we’ve started to see initial reviews of Apple’s newest hardware product, the MagSafe Battery Pack, such as this report by Jacob Krol of CNN. It looks chunkier than I had expected after just looking at Apple’s product photos on its website, but I’ve seen lots of positive reports about how it feels. I haven’t yet seen any good reports on how much it can extend the life of your iPhone, but I presume we will start to see those reports next week after people have had more time to run tests.
- Stephen Warwick of iMore points out that if you have an iPhone Lightning dock, like this model that I reviewed in 2017, you can place the Apple MagSafe Battery Pack in that dock to create a magnetic charging stand. That’s clever.
- Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet notes that Apple released iOS 14.7 this week, and in addition to a few new features, it fixes some other security flaws — I’m sure the same sort of flaws that NSO Group and others have been exploiting.
- José Adorno of 9to5Mac explains the steps that you can take if your iPhone is stolen. He also points out that when iOS 15 comes out this Fall, it will add a new feature that allows you to wipe the contents of a stolen iPhone while still retaining the ability to track it, which is a great idea.
- And finally, Apple released a new video this week called Hello Sunshine, which shows off some of the ways that you might be inspired to be more active with an Apple Watch. It’s a cute video.