HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — If you're an iPhone user listen up! New spyware or a 'silent hack' recently attacked Apple devices.
Some users didn't even know. FOX54 reporter Keneisha Deas spoke with a cyber security expert who explains what it is, and how to protect yourself in the future.
"My understanding of why this Pegasus exploit was used is by the Israeli government, at least as it's being reported, was so that they can track sort of enemies of the state - dissidents that might want to do harm to the nation of Israel or Israeli citizens," said Jay Town, Vice President & General Counsel with Gray Analytics.
Town said the hack started with iMessage."And so, when, when that would happen, there would be zero clicks that would have to take place in order for that vulnerability to be exploited by the Pegasus software."
"Because there is this vulnerability. It leaves us all vulnerable that are using any of the Apple platforms and devices so,” said Town.
"It's important that Apple did with they did, patch it with the 14.8 iOS, and now we just as users have to take that extra step to go ahead and make our devices safer," said Town.
Give yourselves about 20 minutes to an hour to download and install the app.
"So if you have any Apple device you should go to it go to your little gearbox General, Settings and then go into software update and it will be there waiting for you if it hasn't already automatically updated and that will patch against or bait against this vulnerability," said Town.
Town says if you’re going to stay on the web, you need to be ‘cyber aware’. "Know what you're clicking on ahead of time, be sure that when you're responding to an email, it's not a spoof email that actually sorts of looks like somebody you're familiar with but isn't the actual email address."
"There's a reason why they update those it's not always just, you know because there's a new crop of emojis that might be fun, it's because there actually are security patches that are necessary for your phone, think about the amount of information that is carried on these phones, these are these are supercomputers that are in our hands now," said Town.