Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) earlier made an outlandish claim that Apple was cooperating with the US National Security Agency (NSA) to hack iPhones belonging to Russian diplomats and other Russia-residing foreign diplomats. Apple has vehemently denied those claims in a new indirect statement given out to Reuters.
Apple gave out an indirect statement concerning the FSB’s claims, reiterating that it has never cooperated with any governments in the past, with no plans of doing so going forward:
We have never worked with any government to insert a backdoor into any Apple product and never will
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Apple spokesperson
The FSB’s original statement alleges that thousands of iPhones have been compromised in what is described as “close cooperation” involving Apple and the NSA. Russian intelligence claims that Apple supplied the NSA with special iOS backdoor access to targeted iPhones without providing any concrete evidence that would incriminate Apple. The claimed infiltration has also allegedly affected Russia-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, targeting its upper and senior management.
Apple famously got into a dispute with the FBI in 2016 when it refused to supply the federal agency with an iOS backdoor to access a suspect’s iPhone 5c involved in a 2015 shooting in San Bernardino. There is no credible reason to believe that Apple would change its stance now, especially as the company has doubled down on privacy features in software updates for many of its devices.
