Russia accuses NSA and Apple of espionage

Russia says the National Security Agency (NSA) has been spying on Russian officials and civilians using iPhone backdoor vulnerabilities created for the United States by Apple.

In the past, the NSA has tried to win public favor, as it opposed Apple’s refusal to grant it access to user data in case of an investigation. But now Russia’s Federal Security Office (FSB) says that Apple has granted backdoor access to the NSAdespite the Cupertino-based company selling itself as a champion of privacy.

As reported da Reuters, the FSB claims to have discovered that the NSA was using previously unknown malware to access these backdoors. It’s unclear why the malware was needed if backdoor access already existed, but the FSB says that several thousand iPhones in Russia have been infected.

“The FSB has discovered an intelligence action by US special services using Apple mobile devices,” the FSB said in a statement viewed by Reuters. “Apple offers US intelligence agencies a wide range of opportunities to monitor anyone of interest to the White House and their partners in anti-Russian activities, and their own citizens.”

The intelligence action reportedly targeted the iPhones of Russian citizens, as well as foreign diplomats based in Russia, including those from Israel, Syria and China. The FSB says it uncovered the NSA plot with the help of Russia’s Federal Guard Service, which is an agency that protects the country’s leaders.

Apeople he answered indirectly to the affirmation of Russia that the alleged deal included close cooperation between the company and the NSA. And unsurprisingly, the FSB’s indictment came without any evidence that Apple was actually involved.

Apple has since publicly expressed its opposition to compromising customer security to meet requests to create a backdoor into iPhone software.

The logic is simple: if Apple creates a key that only “good” governments could use, that key invalidates security for every customer. There’s no way to know if a key like that could fall into the wrong hands.

“We have never worked with any government to put a backdoor into any Apple product and never will,” an Apple spokesperson said.