Russia: Russia has accused United States intelligence agencies of hacking thousands of iPhones belonging to Russian users and foreign diplomats in the country.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stated that it had discovered an “intelligence action” that had compromised the phones of Russians as well as diplomats from Israel, Syria, China, and NATO members.

The FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB spy service, said Apple worked closely with US spy agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA), but did not provide evidence for its claim.

In a statement, Apple did not comment on whether iPhones in Russia had been hacked but denied working with authorities to compromise its devices.

“We have never worked with any government to insert a backdoor into any Apple product and never will,” the California-based tech giant commented.

Separately, the chief executive of Russia’s cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab noted that dozens of senior employees had been victims of an “extremely complex, professional-targeted cyberattack.”

In a blog post, Mr. Eugene Kaspersky remarked that the attack had been carried out using an invisible iMessage with a malicious attachment that exploited vulnerabilities in the iOS operating system.

“We’re confident that Kaspersky was not the main target of this cyberattack. The coming days will bring more clarity and further details on the worldwide proliferation of this spyware,” Mr. Kaspersky stated.

Kaspersky, which is headquartered in Moscow but has offices in more than 30 countries, did not attribute the attack to a particular country or actor.

WORLD ROUNDUP: Malaysia detains Chinese ship suspected of looting WW2 wrecks