Hackers Targeted Apple Devices in Hong Kong for Widespread Attack

Since at least late August, sophisticated hackers used flaws in macOS and iOS to install malware on Apple devices that visited Hong Kong–based media and pro-democracy websites. The so-called watering hole attacks cast a wide net, indiscriminately placing a backdoor on any iPhone or Mac unfortunate enough to visit one of the affected pages. 

Apple has patched the various bugs that allowed the campaign to unfold. But a report Thursday from Google’s Threat Analysis Group shows how aggressive the hackers were and how broadly their reach extended. It’s yet another case of previously undisclosed vulnerabilities, or zero-days, being exploited in the wild by attackers. Rather than a targeted attack that focuses on high-value targets like journalists and dissidents, though, the suspected state-backed group went for scale.

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