Russia’s FSB says US NSA penetrated thousands of Apple phones in spy plot

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday that it had uncovered a U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) plot using previously unknown malware to penetrate specially made backdoor vulnerabilities in Apple phones.

The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that several thousand Apple phones had been infected, including those of domestic Russian subscribers.

The Russian spy agency also said telephones belonging to foreign diplomats based in Russia and the former Soviet Union, including those from NATO members, Israel, Syria and China, had been targetted.