Russia accuses US of accessing thousands of Apple iPhones in spy plot

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday it had uncovered a US National Security Agency (NSA) plot using previously unknown malware to access specially made so-called backdoor vulnerabilities in Apple phones.

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

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.