BitsnBytes Fall2023

Bits & bytes Fall 2023 9 Zero-day Vulnerability Exploit and Key Findings Apple credited Bill Marczak, Senior Research Fellow at The Citizen Lab at The University of Toronto’s Munk School, and Maddie Stone of Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) for discovering the bugs and finding potential reasons why spyware was deployed during the zero-day vulnerability. According to Google’s TAG blog, Marczak found an exploit chain for iPhones developed by Intellexa, a commercial surveillance vendor. This exploit chain is used to install a spyware called Predator. Predator uses a man-in-the-middle (MitM) cyberattack where a third party intercepts and potentially alters communications between two parties without their knowledge or consent in instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp. To read more about Google’s TAG discovery of iPhones exploit chain, click the button below. As speculated in the report from The Citizen Lab, the Predator spyware was deployed because Ahmed Eltantawy, former Egyptian Member of Parliament, publicly stated that he is running in the 2024 presidential elections. Egypt is a known customer of the Predator spyware. Based on records of previous attacks on highly profiled Egyptian citizens, The Citizen Lab has high confidence in its attribution of the attack to the Egyptian government. For further information on The Citizen Lab’s report, click the button below. To read the full article, click the button below. Sandra Rocha-Bucco Client Development Executive 908.347.1317 srocha@ntst.com Dawn Buck Account Executive dawn@nextstepsolutionsinc.com 248-309-3402 Cristina Prince Marketing Director cristina.prince@streamlinehealthcare.com 312-933-2486 Anna Komissarenko President 800-995-6997 anna@zoobooksystems.com Google TAG The Citizen Lab ZDNET.com