Apple on Tuesday responded to the WikiLeaks data dump of iOS flaws the CIA allegedly knew about and exploited to access the data of users. The company says “many” of the exposed exploits have already been addressed in the most recent version of iOS.
In a statement issued to news outlets, and subsequently posted to Twitter by BuzzFeed’s John Paczkowski, Apple says the latest public version of iOS, released in January, contains patches for critical flaws outlined in today’s WikiLeaks dump.
WikiLeaks claims nearly all of the CIA’s hacking tools were stolen, which is how the group obtained the documents they published on Tuesday.
Apple Working on Fixes for Remaining Security Flaws
Apple says it is working on fixes for newly discovered security holes. However, as would be expected, the Cupertino firm didn’t offer an accounting of which exploits have yet to be fixed.
Apple is deeply committed to safeguarding our customers’ privacy and security. The technology built into today’s iPhone represents the best data security available to consumers, and we’re constantly working to keep it that way. Our products and software are designed to quickly get security updates into the hands of our customers, with nearly 80 percent of users running the latest version of our operating system. While our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS, we will continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities. We always urge customers to download the latest iOS to make sure they have the most recent security updates.
On Tuesday, WikiLeaks published a large amount of documents the it says originated form the CIA Center for Cyber Intelligence. The “Vault 7” dump included a list of 14 iOS exploits the CIA allegedly knew about.
The documents indicate the CIA developed some of its spying tools in-house, while purchasing others or gathered them via intelligence sharing with the FBI, NSA, and the United Kingdom’s GCHQ. The leaked documents also show the agency has tools to crack Android devices and Samsung Smart TVs.
