Nine persons with knowledge of the situation claim that over a dozen senior Indonesian government and military personnel were the targets of espionage software created by an Israeli monitoring company last year.
According to the sources, the targets were Indonesia’s Chief Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, senior military members, two regional diplomats, and advisers in the defence and foreign affairs ministries.
According to six of the targeted Indonesian officials and advisers, Apple Inc. sent them an email in November 2021 informing them that they suspected they were ‘being targeted by state-sponsored attackers.’
Apple has not revealed the names or quantity of customers who were targeted. For this report, the firm declined to comment.
Apple and security experts claim that ForcedEntry, a sophisticated programme used by Israeli cyber surveillance firm NSO Group to assist foreign spy agencies remotely and covertly take control of iPhones, was used to target the recipients of the alerts.
According to Reuters, QuaDream, another Israeli cyber company, has created a hacking tool that is almost comparable.
Reuters was unable to identify the individuals who created or employed the malware to target the Indonesian authorities, if their efforts were successful, and if so, what the hackers may have managed to steal.
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