Update your iPhone: long-feared spyware hack has become reality

The much-talked-about hack that would allow governments to spy on your every move through your iPhone and iPad has become reality.

Apple issued a security update for those devices on Thursday after researchers discovered spyware that turns hand-held Apple devices into the mother of all snoops, allowing remote operators to intercept all voice and data communications and pass along every photograph and video.

Researchers said spyware had never been found before this month that could “jailbreak” an iPhone or iPad and seize total control of its functions. Efforts to use the spyware have surfaced in Mexico and the United Arab Emirates, where critics of the government appear to have been targeted for surveillance.

Thursday’s development is a hit on the reputation of Apple products as largely hack-proof, and it raises questions over whether the spyware is in widespread use by authoritarian governments around the world.

Details have also emerged about how the hack was spotted. The suspicious text message that appeared on Ahmed Mansoor’s iPhone promised to reveal details about torture in the United Arab Emirates’ prisons. All Mansoor had to do was click the link.

Mansoor, a human rights activist, didn’t take the bait. Instead, he reported it to Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog, setting off a chain reaction that in two weeks exposed a secretive Israeli cyberespionage firm, defanged a powerful new piece of eavesdropping software and gave millions of iPhone users across the world an extra boost to their digital security.