USA-Russia rivalry intensifies with allegations of iPhone espionage

In today's era of espionage wars, predominantly in the digital world, including smartphones, the USA-Russia rivalry continues rapidly. At times, the two countries can accuse each other of serious crimes.

In the latest incident between the two countries, the leading role is played by iPhones, which are produced by the American company Apple and are one of the most preferred mobile phone brands worldwide. According to Russia, the US intelligence is allegedly coordinating with Apple to leave a 'backdoor' in some iPhones. Later, they discreetly access the phones, reaching critical information such as conversation recordings from the camera, contacts, and gallery, almost unnoticed by the users.

Let's delve a bit further into the recent incident... Last month, the Russian intelligence service, FSB, published a report directly targeting US intelligence agencies, claiming that there is a backdoor in iPhones.

According to Moscow's claim, thousands of iPhones belonging to Russian personnel in not only state officials in Russia but also Israeli, Chinese, and several NATO member countries' embassies were found to have spyware.

Following the Russian intelligence's statement, Kaspersky, one of the world's leading cybersecurity companies from Russia, also made a statement. According to the technical report, the mentioned spyware did not require any interaction or clicks. It was directly present in the phone and did not need another program.

After Russia's claims, although Apple denied the process, an interesting development occurred. Shortly after FSB and Kaspersky's statements, Apple released urgent security updates. The vulnerabilities detected by Russia were also listed in the updates. While the process may seem like a Russia-USA issue, considering that iPhones are used all around the world, including Turkey, it becomes apparent how significant the crisis can be.

We spoke with Ersin Çahmutoğlu, an ADEO Cybersecurity Expert who closely follows the process, to better understand the developments and discuss possible measures Turkey needs to take.

Çahmutoğlu mentions that there have been backdoor allegations regarding iPhones for many years. He points out that American intelligence agencies such as NSA, CIA, and FBI have been requesting backdoors on these widely used iPhones globally to collect intelligence.

However, he also adds an interesting detail. Sometimes, intelligence organizations exploit vulnerabilities they discover on a product without the manufacturer's knowledge to their advantage. Russia's statements are very serious... However, Çahmutoğlu recalls that similar allegations have occurred before and refers to the documents exposed by Snowden.

According to Çahmutoğlu, in this method, intelligence agencies request the insertion of a backdoor into iPhones. This way, any iPhone produced can be accessed through these backdoors by the NSA, using the 'private key' they possess, regardless of the country it goes to, and collect intelligence from the target.