The USA's spy agency has been accused of targetting Apple's iPhone's with malware that enables them to remotely activate the devices without the users knowledge.
According to leaked documents shared by security researcher Jacob Appelbaum and German news magazine Der Spiegel, an NSA programme enabled the spies to intercept text messages, access contact lists or activate the smartphone's microphone and camera.
The malware is best installed by the spies having physical access to the handset, which they are apparently able to do by intercepting deliveries from online purchases. Even without physical access, they are claimed to be able to deliver some malware functionality via over-the-air updates.
Due to the scale of the apparent hacks into the Apple software, the security researcher Jacob Appelbaum said that either the NSA is sitting on a trove of software bugs that it is exploiting for its own purposes, rather than notifying the software firms that their code is not secure -- or it worked in cooperation with Apple to leave backdoors in its own software.
The leaked documents were not due to be declassified officially until 2032.
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