Zero click threats are here and are here to stay," she added.Īpple, which offered an update to patch the security issue on Monday, credited Citizen Lab for helping the company quickly tackle the issue. "This has to serve as a huge wake-up call for device manufacturers and technology providers as a whole.
"Although the company says that its spyware is only available for use by licensed law enforcement groups to target terrorists and criminals, numerous questions have been raised about the veracity of this statement," Plaggemier said. "This means it is virtually impossible for individuals to know if they have been compromised or not," she added. "Whereas typical cyberattacks require a user to engage with a malicious piece of content - such as clicking on a rogue link - zero click exploits do not require any sort of interaction with devices' owners themselves," Lisa Plaggemier, interim executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, told CBS News. They also revealed that the NSO Group's flagship "Pegasus" spyware program was used to infect the activist's device. Researchers at Citizen Lab called the exploit "Forcedentry'' and said it has been in use since February. In a new report, researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab said the NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company, used what is known as a "zero-click exploit" to access the phone of an unnamed Saudi activist.
Cybersecurity analysts are urging Apple users to immediately update the software of their phones, computers and watches after the company issued an emergency security patch on Monday to prevent hackers from gaining access to the devices without the users knowing.