Apple bans dangerous app! Delete from your iPhone now, it can call on your behalf, take photos

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Apple iPhones are being attacked by a most dangerous app, which Apple has now banned. This latest spyware is capable of hacking your iPhone! Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), which keeps a track and analyzes government-backed hacking and attacks has published a research report on this spyware dubbed 'Hermit'. It can compromise all iOS devices. It was developed by Italian software company RCS. Once this spyware is on your device, it is capable of hacking the iPhone and controlling certain features, such as recording audio, make unauthorised calls automatically, and more. It can even read your emails, contacts, text messages, search history of your browser as well as hack the camera to take photos.

How is this spooky spyware reaching your iPhones or Android smartphones? A report by The Sun shared that through the sideload method, Hermit is made available outside of the Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store. Sideloading basically refers to the media files that can be transferred to a smartphone via USB, Bluetooth, WiFi, and similar methods. According to Google, in Android incidents, the online attackers most likely disabled users' mobile data connectivity first. The investigation in the case of this spyware by Google revealed that the spyware also took advantage of Apple's enterprise certificate with iPhones. Basically, the Hermit spyware was masquerading as a legitimate app to bypass Apple's requirements and infect the iPhones.

Thankfully, Apple has already announced its plans to put a full stop on this spyware attack. It has decided to cancel all certificates associated with the spyware. Which simply means that the malicious app holding this Hermit spyware will no longer be accessible outside the Apple’s App store.