Earlier this year, a developer was shocked by a message that appeared on his personal phone: “Apple detected a targeted mercenary spyware attack against your iPhone.” The targeting of Gibson’s iPhone shows that the proliferation of zero-days and spyware is starting to ensnare more types of victims. Spyware and zero-day makers have historically claimed their tools are only deployed by vetted government customers against criminals and terrorists.Two days after receiving the Apple threat notification, Gibson contacted a forensic expert with extensive experience investigating spyware attacks. After performing an initial analysis of Gibson’s phone, the expert did not find any signs of infection, but still recommended a deeper forensic analysis of the exploit developer’s phone. The closest public cases of security researchers being targeted by hackers happened in 2021 and 2023, when North Korean government hackers were caught targeting security researchers working in vulnerability research and development. Do you think that technology will one day enslave us with the help of the governments ?
