iPhones of Indonesian minister Airlangga Hartarto, military officials targeted with ForcedEntry spyware
- Devices of more than a dozen senior government officials and advisers were infected with surveillance software made by Israel’s NSO Group
- Apple warned six officials in an email message last year that the company believed they were being ‘targeted by state-sponsored attackers’
Six of the individuals told Reuters they were targeted themselves.
The targets included Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, senior military personnel, two regional diplomats, and advisers in Indonesia’s defence and foreign affairs ministries, according to the people.
Six of the Indonesian officials and advisers targeted said they received an email message from Apple Inc in November 2021 telling them that the company believed officials were being “targeted by state-sponsored attackers.”
Apple has not disclosed the identities or number of users targeted. The company declined to comment for this story.
Apple and security researchers have said the recipients of the warnings were targeted using ForcedEntry, an advanced piece of software that has been used by Israeli cyber surveillance vendor NSO Group to help foreign spy agencies remotely and invisibly take control of iPhones. Another Israeli cyber firm, QuaDream, has developed a nearly identical hacking tool, Reuters has reported.